I'm sitting in the lobby of the resort and I'm all checked out. We're catching a bus to the airport in about 20 minutes. Yeah, I know, no AOTW, no Saturday Boobage, no blonde joke, and no Saturday Bach. I'm on vacation. I'll be back to what passes for normal next week.
Today was the last day of diving. You have to wait 24 hours after the last dive to fly. We did two dives this morning and now we're done. Time to pack. Ugh! It's been a great week. I got 17 dives in on this trip. Almost all of them long ones. The deepest I went was 78 feet. I did a 74 footer today. All the rest were under 60 feet. You don't need to go real deep to see a lot of neat stuff.
Yep! It's time to say goodbye too our dive boat, the Alice H.
This is a great dfve boat. You can roll right on it in a wheelchair.
Cindy (the cute 24 year old quad) had a great time. It's really great that the Shepherd Center partners with Bert to put together these trips once a year. It's also awesome that Graham and Risa went through the HSA Dive Buddy course to help out on these trips. Graham has been doing this since the first trip in 2001. Risa has been on one other crip trip and has been helping, along with Graham, when Bert does his Discover Scuba program in the Shepherd Center pool once a month. Risa just got her HSA certification this year. If I weren't an atheist I would say that there is a special place in heaven for these people.
Tonight we're eating at Capriccio's. It's a tradition that whenever we go to Bonaire we eat there the last night. Not only is the food great, but they have a good wine list. They also have Grappa.
Holy crap! It's already day 6. This week has flown by.
Last night we did a night dive on the reef just off shore from the resort. This is the third time I've made a night dive. The first one sucked as all I had was a hand held light. It's hard to swim using my hands and still see anything. Take two strokes, coast, and use the light to try to find something to look at.
The second one was last year. I had on a light that I wore on my head and a hand held light. The head light was just barely bright enough to see where I was going and if I found anything interesting, I could stop and use my hand held light. Better, but still not right.
This year I had a bright light that I could attach to my mask strap. This was bright enough to see where I was going and see other stuff. I hardly used my hand held at all. At one point in the dive we were buzzed by a big ol' tarpon. This was a very enjoyable night dive. Now that I've got the equipment worked out, I'm hooked. Cindy (the cute quad) and her family went as well. Her mother freaked out when the tarpon was buzzing us. I think she thought it was a shark.
Here's a picture of the setup I used last night.
Notice I got in a little plug for Bert's shop, Divers@Sea.
After we got our equipment stowed and we got cleaned up, seven of us went into town to get some dinner. We were gonna go to Mona Lisa but it was full. The other place we wanted to eat has closed down. We were in two cars, and American cellphones don't work in Bonaire (unless they are CDMA) and we got separated a few times. It was getting late and there weren't too many places open. We finally wound up in a bar out on a pier that got its food from a restaurant across the street. The service was slooooow. The waitress took our orders together and then split it up into separate checks later. That took about fifteen minutes. We didn't get back to the resort until midnight.
6:45 came awfully early this morning.
Did two dives this morning. Great dive sites. Duh. It's Bonaire. On the second dive we saw some tarpons and a barracuda.
The dive this afternoon was on a beautiful wall. To do the wall we had to break procedure. Normally you swim against the current for the first half of the dive and that way you can drift back to the boat. We wanted to do the wall so we drifted with the current and Graham and Charlie had to tow me back. It was an awesome wall.
Only two more dives left.
Today is a four dive day: two in the morning, one in the afternoon, and a night dive. I'll get to check out my new lighting system. This is a light that attaches to my mask. The miner type light I used last year wasn't bright enough. Since I swim with my arms, it's kinda hard to use a hand held lamp.
I actually remember all the dives we did today.
Dive 1 – Alice in Wonderland
Dive 2 – Windsock.
Dive 3 – Cliff
Our night dive will be the reef off of the resort.
I've mentioned it before, but one of the nice things about Bonaire is you don't usually go below 70 feet and the boat is usually anchored in 20 feet of water so you can stay down a long time.
To answer a question in the comments yesterday about webcams, I've only seen one and that was on a dive yesterday. I only got within 20 feet of it. If I see another one, I'll wave.
Here is a picture of Garfield, the resort's cat.
No underwater photos because I do not have an underwater camera. I have enough trouble taking pictures above water.
Up bright and early to get ready for today's dives. Today we dove the Hilma Hooker. As I was putting on my fins, one of my fin straps broke. No problem. I had a spare in my save a dive kit. So I only lost about two minutes in putting on my spare strap. The longer I dive, the more stuff I accumulate. I still have my old dive computer as a backup for my new one. Redundancy is good.
As has happened on my last few wreck dives there was a current. So we had to go down the mooring line and swim over to the wreck. I had to be towed twice on this dive. I had a spare carabiner that I have hooked to one of the rings on my BCD. Charlie grabbed that to tow me. Paige used it to tow me back to the mooring line. Works great! We worked our way up and made our safety stop hanging on the line. It was only a 20 minute dive so we didn't get to spend too much time on the wreck. Bummer! At least I've dived it before in optimal conditions.
Our second dive was a nice restful one and I got 60 minutes in. After lunch and we were at it again. I came to dive! Half the group usually eschews the afternoon dive. There were only seven of us this afternoon. I was the only crip and I don't need much help under water. If there is a current I sometimes need to be towed. This afternoon there was a small current, but I was able to swim against it without too much trouble. That freed up Bert, Graham, and Charlie to take pictures. This was a 70 minute dive. You get to make nice long dives in Bonaire.
Here's a picture of our group at dinner last night.
I'm beat. Made three dives today: Two in the morning, one in the afternoon. All of them were awesome. On one of the dives this morning, a sea turtle swam within three feet of me. This afternoon we spotted a school of squid and they came real close as well.
I got a new dive computer right before this trip and I was reading up on it this morning. I can't believe how much the technology has advanced since I bought my last one four years ago. That one kept a history of the last 15 dives. This one can store 9999 dives! To learn all the functions on this computer you need an engineering degree.
I'd like to write more, but I'm tired and I need a nap before dinner.
Tomorrow, we dive a wreck.
This one is from Alan.
Two fishermen were out on the lake when one of them dropped his wallet. As they watched the wallet float down to the depths of the lake, a carp came along and snatched up the wallet. Soon came another carp who stole it away and then a third joined in. Remarked one of the fisherman,
"That's the first time I've ever seen carp-to-carp walleting."
So today we did some actual diving. We had the briefing this morning and did an orientation dive off the resort to check out our gear and make sure we were all had the right amount of weight. I started out with 12 pounds. That's my normal salt water weight. Since I had been diving less than four months ago, I expected everything to be fine and it was. Got to try out my new dive computer.
This was Cindy's (the quad) first open water dive and she handled it real well. Bert and Graham dove with her as they are the most experienced divers. She did real well and really enjoyed herself. Open water is a lot different than the pool.
After lunch, we took off on the dive boat. We dove Angel City. Saw a huge moray eel. I got to dive with Charlie. Due to some family problems, it had been two years since he had been diving. I like diving with Charlie since he takes his time and swims nice and slow. I was a little bit worried since I hadn't been swimming laps since April. I was fine. Sixty feet, sixty minutes and I was back on the boat with 1000 pounds left in my tank. Charlie and I kept our modus operandi intact. He and I are usually the first ones off the boat and the last ones on. We come to dive!
Eating at an Argentinian restaurant tonight. I might even post some pictures tomorrow. No, I'll post some tonight.
My room. Note the tasteful draping of clothes on the chair.
Sunset.
Interesting point from CharlieB.
This is how a US senator looks upon a crook.
And this is how a US senator looks upon an American hero.
Generals don't make enough money to offer a significant contribution.
It was up at 4:45AM to get to the airport to catch an 8:40 Air Jamaica (Motto:No problem, Mon!) flight to Montego Bay. One of my dive buddies, Charlie, spent the night, and we drove down to the airport in his car. They slipped me over to the business class line to get our group checked in quickly. Unfortunately, there was a family in front of me who were checking their entire worldly possessions. At lwast it seemed that way. The other agent spent ten minutes with another rocket scientist. I swear. I think IQ's drop by 20 points when people enter an airport. Anyway, Graham and I got our bags checked and headed down to the gate where we met some of the others on our merry crew. Hartsfield has WiFi so I was able to log on and answer some mail. The rest of the people showed up in plenty of time for our flight.
Here are the cast of characters:
Cindy - A young C4/C5 incomplete quad. This is her first dive trip since her accident.
Her mom Darleen, her dad Jerry, and her brother Dallas.
Parnell (AKA the Big Guy) – T6 para and world champion paralympic weight lifter. He won the Gold Medal at the Sydney Olympics. I've been on two dive trips with him.
Ray – brain damaged due to a skydiving accident, and his father, Richard. I've probably been on six trips with them.
Bert Quist – Owner of Divers@Sea. He's an HSA instructor. He's the trip leader.
Graham – HSA Dive Buddy certified. He's been on every dive trip I've taken since my accident. He's an awesome diver.
Resa – She just got her HSA Dive Buddy cert. This is the third trip she's been on with me. She's a truly awesome diver.
Charlie - He's a Master Diver and has taken the HSA Dive Buddy class, but hasn't taken the exam yet for his cert. This is the fourth trip that Charlie and I have been on together. He is another awesome diver.
Paige – She's the Shepherd recreational therapist. This is the first crip trip she's been on.
So we had a one hour layover in Montego Bay and then it was on to Bonaire. We got there around 4:00 PM. After the zoo at passport control and baggage claim, we were on our way to the Divi Flamingo. This is the third time I've been there and this is the third time I'v got the same room, which is OK by me. It'a a nice room. I also found out that the resort has WiFi but only from the lobby. We'll see how that works when I try to post this tonight.
Had a nice dinner and it's off to have a beer with some of the crew.
Dick sent me this one.
Bubba and Junior were standing at the base of a flagpole, looking up. A
blonde lady walked by and asked what they were doing. "We're supposed to
find the height of the flagpole," said Bubba, "but we don't have a ladder."
The woman took a wrench from her purse, loosened a few bolts, and laid
the pole down. Then she took a tape measure from her pocket, took a
measurement and announced, "Eighteen feet, six inches," and walked away.
Junior shook his head and laughed. "Ain't that just like a dumb blonde?
We ask for the height, and she gives us the length."
I have to get up early tomorrow to catch a flight to Bonaire for a week of scuba diving. I am so glad I was here when Ashley died. Had she died when I was gone, I would have felt even worse than I do now. It will be so strange when I return and not see her at the door waiting for me.
I'm taking my laptop along with me. I don't know if the resort has Wifi, but I think there is an internet cafe in town.
Today I had to say goodbye to my cat Ashley. She had been losing weight and Monday she quit eating. I took her to the vet on Tuesday and the vet said her kidneys were failing. The vet tried for three days to see if she could get her better, but it was no use. I brought her home last night to spend one more day with her before I had to say goodbye forever. I had nine wonderful years with her. She was the sweetest cat I have ever met. She was the Will Rogers of housecats. She loved everyone. That's what saved her life.
It was September of 1998 and I had just moved into GOC Central in Beautiful Dunwoody. I was down to one cat, Doofus, and I wanted to get another. I've usually had two cats, although once I had four. I was looking for a female tabby. Cindy's daughter Maureen found one for me.
Maureen was in Vet School at the University of Georgia. Their research center had this cat that they really loved and wanted to find a good home for. Research cats do not usually make good pets. They spend most of their lives in cages and do not usually have good dispositions. Not this cat. Everytime someone would walk by her cage she would stick her paw out begging for attention. Normally, the cats would be put to sleep after the project they were used for but this cat was so sweet they asked around to see if anyone would adopt her. Maureen adopted her for me so technically, she was Maureen's cat.
They spayed her before the adoption. Unfortunately, they botched the anaesthetic and when Maureen brought her to me she was scrawney and partially blind. Maureen was surprised that I agreed to take her in that condition. I'm glad I did. I had to put an ointment on her eyes. Rather, Cindy had to put an ointment on her eyes while I held her. She was declawed, but she really knew how to use her back claws. Cindy has the scars to prove it.
After two days, Maureen had to take her back to Athens for a checkup. When she brought her back, Ashley, which is what I named her, raced under the bed and there she stayed. She really freaked out. She had escaped Aushwitz and Maureen took her back. She came out from under the bed to eat and use the litter box, and then it was back under the bed. I used to dangle a piece of string to get her to come out.
One day I saw her stalking an ant. That was when I knew she was no longer blind. Scrawney? Not likely. She grew out of that and became a little porker. I remember she had a little fishing pole toy that she loved so much she would drag it all over the house.
She also loved to torment Doofus who was about ten years old at this time. Doofus was an easy going cat and he put up with it. Well, not at first. He would growl and hiss at her but that never bothered her. She just kept on coming. Doofus finally accepted her. Cindy once said that Doofus was the Golden Retriever of house cats. I used to tell Ashley about Karma. She experienced it after Doofus died and I got Scooter. Scooter would torment her. I noticed he stopped doing that about six months ago. Ashley was beginning to show her age.
I think Ashley was five when I got her. She was a mom at least once, maybe more. These cats have a very distinctive coloring which is called Agouti. They use them because they breed true. At least that's what Maureen told me. What do I know? I just know that she was a very beautiful cinnamon colored tabby.
She loved to sit on my lap (She loved to sit on anyone's lap) and be combed. And did she shed! That was the downside of her sitting on your lap. Cat hair. Lots of it.
Over Christmas in 1998 I got a very bad skin sore on my right instep. I required IV antibiotics. Cindy would come over to administer them and Ashley loved to bat at the IV line. If it moved, it was a toy. She also liked to oversee a dressing change. Gotta get some cat hair in that open wound. That's when we started calling her the nurse cat. She was a kitten until about two years ago. That's when she started slowing down.
Her first five years were not so good, but because she was such a sweet cat, she got nine years in a very good home. Every day was a bonus. She gave me unconditional love and was the sweetest cat I have ever met.
I took her back to the vet today and stroked her while she died. She was a great cat and a wonderful friend. I only wish that I could have had more than nine years with her.
Update: Thanks to all of you who have sent me condolences in the comments and by e-mail. I really appreciate it. I will soon be going to a shelter to offer another cat a good home. If I were not going out of town, I would have done it today. The day Doofus died, I adopted Scooter. All of my cats have come from shelters or have been strays with the exception of Ashley who escaped from the death camp.
Long time reader (one of my first!) Ralph Gizzip sent me this link
Students don't know much about history, and colleges aren't adding enough to their civic literacy, says a report out today.The study from the non-profit Intercollegiate Studies Institute shows that less than half of college seniors knew that Yorktown was the battle that ended the American Revolution or that NATO was formed to resist Soviet expansion. Overall, freshmen averaged 50.4% on a wide-ranging civic literacy test; seniors averaged 54.2%, both failing scores if translated to grades.
For the record, I dropped out of college in my junior year. I did go back to night school and took some business courses like Economics and Accounting. (At one time I wanted to be a manager. Found out that they couldn't pay me enough to take that job. I would have had to manage people like me.) Haven't taken any college courses in 25 years. I do stay up on current events and I read a lot of history but no American history. My American history knowledge comes from high school and I graduated in 1964. My results?
You answered 57 out of 60 correctly — 95.00 % Average score for this quiz during September: 75.1% Average score since September 18, 2007: 75.1%
From the article, college "seniors averaged 54.2%". So we have a 60 year old college dropout almost doubling the average score of a college senior. WTF are they teaching in school? Oh. I know. Women's studies. Black studies. Socialism. Bullshit. Don't want the populace to know too much about gummint and that pesky Constitution thingy. But they do know that Britney Spears doesn't wear any panties.
BTW, my major was engineering. None of that in this quiz. Wonder how my sister will do. She's smarter than I am and she's good at history as well.
Sign in Taxachusetts.
Start them early.
Got it from Roger.
Nope. He's out on bail. He can continue the search for the real killers on Florida golf courses. He did have to surrender his passport so he won't be able to search overseas.
Thanks to Darrell for sending me the cartoon.
Ron sent me these quotes.
(1) "We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."
Sounds like take from the rich, give to the poor. Must be Robin Hood...GOC
(2) "It's time for a new beginning, for an end to government of the few, by the few, and for the few, and to replace it with shared responsibility for shared prosperity."
Workers arise. Must be Karl Marx...GOC
(3) "(We) can't just let business as usual go on, and that means something has to be taken away from some people."
Rule by the proletariat. Confiscation of wealth. Must be Marx...GOC
(4) "We have to build a political consensus, and that requires people to give up a little bit of their own turf in order to create this common ground."
Give up their turf? WTF? Tiger Woods?...GOC
(5) "I certainly think the free-market has failed."
Now that has to be Marx, or Paul Krugman...GOC
(6) "I think it's time to send a clear message to what has become the most profitable sector in (the) entire economy - that they are being watched."
Threats. Stalin? Lenin?...GOC
Robin Hood. Karl Marx? Max Engels? Lenin? Stalin? Paul Krugman? Cynthia McCommie? Nope. These statements were all made by Hillary Rodent Clinton. Are you frightened yet? I am.
Since it seems to be squirrel week, George sent me the image below.
What action figures do when the kids are away at school.
He sends his regards to Eric and Bou.
Bou posts an open letter to the pudgy pop tart.
I'm posting this for Bou and Eric who both have a deep love for squirrels.
Got it from Catfish.
Who's gonna look for the real killer?
From Tiger.
So we've been hearing about how the Arctic Ice is at record lows.
PARIS - Arctic ice has shrunk to the lowest level on record, new satellite images show, raising the possibility that the Northwest Passage that eluded famous explorers will become an open shipping lane.
See. That's the good side of Global Warming. Fire up them SUVs. Think of all the shipping time that will save.
The European Space Agency said nearly 200 satellite photos this month taken together showed an ice-free passage along northern Canada, Alaska and Greenland, and ice retreating to its lowest level since such images were first taken in 1978.The waters are exposing unexplored resources, and vessels could trim thousands of miles from Europe to Asia by bypassing the Panama Canal. The seasonal ebb and flow of ice levels has already opened up a slim summer window for ships.
Like I said good news all around. We're not all gonna die.
Environmentalists fear increased maritime traffic and efforts to tap natural resources in the area could one day lead to oil spills and harm regional wildlife.
Those pesky environmentalists always look at the downside.
What is not mentioned in this story is that even though the Arctic is melting, the Antarctic icepack is getting thicker.
While the news focus has been on the lowest ice extent since satellite monitoring began in 1979 for the Arctic, the Southern Hemisphere (Antarctica) has quietly set a new record for most ice extent since 1979.This can be seen on this graphic from this University of Illinois site The Cryosphere Today, which updated snow and ice extent for both hemispheres daily. The Southern Hemispheric areal coverage is the highest in the satellite record, just beating out 1995, 2001, 2005 and 2006. Since 1979, the trend has been up for the total Antarctic ice extent.
See graphics on the linked site.
Stole all these links from here.
Discuss amongst yourselves.
It's baaa-ack. Remember Hillarycare 1.0. It gave the Republicans control of Congress for the first time since the 50's. Today Hillary Rodent Clinton announced Hillarycare 2.0. It will "only" cost $110 billion. Yeah. And Bill didn't inhale and he didn't have "sex with that woman, Ms Lewinsky". This is a Clinton. Do you believe anything that she says?
Also it will force every American to have health insurance. Submit or die! Remember, communists socialists liberals progressives know what is best for you. It will also cover all of our illegal aliens. Now isn't that special?
Matt checked in with what he thinks Hillarycare 2.0 will do to the American taxpayer.
Bend over.
If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free. P. J. O'Rourke from this speech.
Oh yeah! This is just the thing for Atlanta traffic. Thanks to my sis' former neighbor.
They were on last night? Really? First I heard of it. I probably wouldn't have even heard of it today if not for all the fuss about Gidget the Flying Nun Sally Fields being cut off. I've never seen the show that she got the award for. Looks like a lot of other people didn't know they were on.
The show averaged a 10.5 metered-market household rating and 16 share from 8 to 11:15 p.m., according to Nielsen, down 20 percent from last year’s 13.1/20 for the show on NBC.
These self-congratulatory Hollywood awards shows keep losing viewers. I wonder why?
Since Hsu is in the news it is time for the requisite racist Chinese joke that I got from Dave.
Lemme get this straight. Norman Hsu, Hillary fundraiser, jumps bail after putting up $2 million dollars. He was caught in Colorado and the judge sets bail at only $5 million? Thanks to ClubO for the link.
Grand Junction - Disgraced Democratic donor Yung Yuen "Norman" Hsu looked jittery as he made a video appearance from the Mesa County Jail on Thursday while a judge set his bail at $5 million and scheduled an extradition hearing for next week.
Bam! Ouch! My chin just hit the floor. What is wrong with the person who wrote this article? Did she lose her copy of the Journalist Stylebook? I'm talking about "Disgraced Democratic donor Yung Yuen "Norman" Hsu". C'mon Nancy. You wrote "Democrat" in the first paragraph. And what is wrong with the copy editor at the Denver Post who let that through?
But back to Hsu. He skips out on $2 million bail. He's an obvious flight risk. The prosecutor asks for $50 million and the judge sets the bail at $5 million. Was this judge a Clinton appointee?
Hey Prosper. Did you see this? Thanks to Patrick for the link.
PARIS, France (AP) -- France's foreign minister warned Sunday that the world should prepare for war if Iran obtains nuclear weapons and said European leaders were considering their own economic sanctions against the Islamic country.
War? France? WTF?
Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, speaking on RTL radio, called for "more effective sanctions" against Iran if it continues to resist the demands to suspend uranium enrichment.
I can think of some more effective sanctions. Destroy their one oil refinery. Hey sheetheads, run your cars on sand. BWAHAHAHAHA! Maybe your moon god Allan can help you refine oil without a refinery.
"We will not accept that such a bomb is made. We must prepare ourselves for the worst," he said, specifying that could mean a war. He did not elaborate on what kind of preparations that would entail."We have decided, while negotiations are under way ... to prepare for eventual sanctions outside the United Nations, which would be European sanctions," he said.
Yeah! European sanctions = UN sanctions = useless.
Kouchner was not specific about what penalties Europe might impose, other than to say they could be "economic sanctions regarding financial movements.""Our German friends proposed this. We discussed it a few days ago," he said.
The Germans? Ve haf vays of dealing viz ze towelheads.
I cannot think of the French starting a war with Iran. Maybe they want us to do it. One thing about the French, we can count on them always being there when they need us.
Well she said she did want to join the Marines. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
For those of you who hurled, blame CharlieB. He sent it to me.
I noticed she had a Willfull Suspension of Disbelief of Bubba medal. So when she told Petreaus that she would have had to suspend disbelief to believe what he said, what was the problem? She's been doing that with Bill for years, and she has expected us to do that with her for years, like she was named after Sir Edmund Hillary. Just one problem. When she was born, no one had ever heard of Sir Edmund Hillary. I always watch Hillary's mouth. When her lips move, I know she's lying. Same with Bill. They are both pathological liars.
OMFG! Bill Clinton tried to kill Santa!
Got the link from lunchmeat.
This one is so pornographic that I don't dare to post it on the first page. Caution. NSFW! If you hear a woman moaning in orgasmic ecstacy, she's probably looking at this one.
This one is from Richard.
A lion was roaming an African jungle. He was terribly hungry. Soon, he came across two men sitting under a tree. One was pounding away on a typewriter. The other was reading a book. The lion devoured the man reading the book. He avoided the writer. Even lions know...
...that readers digest and writers cramp.
I got an e-mail from the beauteous ArmyWifeToddlerMom whom I haven't seen since I met her at Eric's two years ago. I think she's afraid to show up at any more blogmeets. Pity. I got to see her in her pajamas and she is really a babe. Hey! It was perfectly innocent. It was in the lobby of the hotel.
Anyway, she asked me to sign this petition which I gladly did. If you feel the same way, please sign it.
BWV 998 Prelude
Now, the Allegro.
This is why you practice scales.
For those of you who have been asking for a well endowed woman, here ya go.
From drrufo.
So who shoud be the AOTW for this week. Howza 'bout Superintendent Numbnuts? I wrote about him earlier this week. He's the guy who decided to ban the American flag on student's clothes. To be fair, he banned all flags. Must not offend anyone donthca know.
We got a new commenter, Bob, who likes to quote the rules about displaying the American flag. CharlieDelta wanted me to post this picture for Bob.
Thanks to Ryan for improving the above picture.
But I digress. Superintendent Numbnuts stated the reason for the rule.
The new rule stems from a controversy over students wearing shirts bearing flags of other countries.
So he banned all flags, including the United States flag. After receiving a lot of flack for being an idiot, he rescinded the rule. Now he's back to square one. Here's an idea Numbnuts: Ban all flags but the United States flag. If any students get offended by the US flag, tell them they can go back to the shithole countries thay came from or get used to it.
Here's your award.
Since I'm pissed about paying my taxes, I thought it would be a good idea to watch where some of my tax money is going. This is dedicated to SSG Dave, Teresa's son, and my nephew.
My latest liberal, Bob, thought it was funny that American soldiers would use the Team America theme. He'll prolly say sumpin' about AC/DC being an Australian band. Meanwhile, he's wetting his pants while watching this video. I'm creaming in my jeans.
USA! USA! USA!
I just wrote a check to the bloodsuckers US Gummint for my quarterly estimated taxes. We SRF©s have to do that. Now, if everyone had to that, our tax system would be changed immediately. Bill Clinton says he smiles when he writes his check to the gummint. What a steaming crock of bullshit! Does Bill Clinton ever tell the truth about anything?
Yannow, I'm with those liberals rat bastard commies progressives who want to withhold the percentage of their taxes that go to fund the Department of Defense because they're "morally opposed" to war. Yeah. Like these buttheads have morals. (Hey! Let's go commit infanticide by performing a partial birth abortion. Look how easy the fetus comes out when we suck out its brains and crush its head.) Anyway, I'm down with that provided I can withhold the percentage of my taxes that go to fund stuff that is not in the Constitution.
Department of Education
Department of Commerce
Department of Health and Human Services
Department of Agriculture
Department of Labor
Department of Energy
Department of Housing and Urban Development
Department of Homeland Security (Should be part of the Department of Defense)
I'm OK with the Department of Transportation since I like highways and airplanes. I just wish they'd spend more money on roads than on mass transit, which in many cities no one wants to ride.
Just think of how low our taxes wold be if we only had to pay for stuff that was in the Constitution.
This was in this morning's Atlanta Urinal and Constipation.
Houston —- Texans went to bed Wednesday night expecting to be struck by a tropical storm. They awoke to find they'd been hit by a hurricane instead.The stunningly fast buildup of what became Hurricane Humberto shocked scientists, some of whom said there was nothing like it in the historical record.
I know! I know! It was global warming! It had to be.
In 18 hours, Humberto strengthened from a tropical depression with 35 mph winds to a Category 1 hurricane with 85 mph winds before crashing ashore. It did not grow into a hurricane until after midnight."That has never before happened" in the more than 150 years scientists have been tracking hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean, said James Franklin, a senior specialist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Quick! Call Pope Algore. Have him hold a news conference. It's global warming.
Here's the money shot.
"This took everyone by surprise. This just wasn't forecast to be this bad," said Sgt. Ken Carona of the Port Arthur Police Department. "We knew we were going to get heavy rains, but we did not expect hurricane-strength winds at all.
Weather forecasters can't even predict what's gonna happen eighteen hours ahead of time. These are the same people who are predicting catastrophic global warming sometime in the near future.
As I have stated many times Pope Algore of the Church of AGW said we only have ten years to take action before we're at the point of no return. He said that six years ago, so we'll all know for sure in four more years, right? Wait! He's still saying ten years! He keeps moving the goal posts. And watch, he's gonna continue to do this. Fifteen years from now, when he's made his latest "documentary" on global warming, he'll still be saying ten more years.
What's really funny is we have people who have been saying that Bush is a moron for the last seven years now saying Bush is smart (*cough* Prosper *cough*) because he's signing on to the global warming bullshit. Doesn't matter. The Senate still won't ratify Kyoto or any other global warming crap that would destroy our economy.
AGW is a scam and Algore is a snake oil salesman. Do you think he believes his own bullshit? If he did he would lead by example. Instead, just one of his houses (the one in Nashville) uses twelve times the energy of the average American's house. Yeah, the Pope really cares as he flies off in his private jet to go preach to his flock of suckers believers. Just like a TV evangelist, he's selling bullshit and getting rich doing it. And, just like a TV evangelist he has a bunch of suckers believers who buy into his bullshit. Even intelligent people, like my buddy Prosper, believe in him.
In less than twenty years, when none of his predictions come true will they still believe? Probably. This is a religion after all. Look at all the people waiting for Jesus to return. They've been waiting for two thousand years and He's still not here. He ain't coming back and AGW is bullshit.
I've just offended two religions: AGW and Christianity. My mission here is complete.
OK. This guy is gay. He probably doesn't even know how to work the remote control.
Don Surber's newspaper lost a subscriber. Don, how dare you question their partriotism!
Another day, another Atlanta politician with sloppy record keeping. Fifteen paragraphs and no mention of his political party.
Once again <DonSurber>Is he a Dimocrat or is he a Dimocrat?</DonSurber>
Cynthia McCommie is not seeking the Green Party nomination.
Former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney has given the red light to the Green Party, ending speculation that she would run for president on the ticket and leaving party leaders wondering where their months-long public courtship went sour.
Me too. Whenever I think of Green, I immediately think of McCommie.
McKinney, who as recently as Aug. 31 made an appearance at a Green Party event, said she wanted her name withdrawn from consideration in a letter delivered to the party Monday.
Dammit! That would have been some primo blogging fodder. Maybe she didn't want to give up her current job.
Cindy Sheehan is prolly available. Oh, I forgot. She's running for Pelosi's seat. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
I oughta make this a daily feature. In today's The Vent.
Most Americans break the law by speeding. Then they complain that illegal immigrants are breaking the law. It must be OK to pick and choose which laws you obey.
So there ya go. Being in this country illegally is the same as speeding. Makes perfect sense to me. Let's just send the illegals to traffic court and fine them. Then take their driver's license away. Oh, I forgot. They don't have driver's licenses because they are in this country illegally! They are using our social services illegally!
Uh Oh! This isn't good news for Pope Algore and his
WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new analysis of peer-reviewed literature reveals that more than 500 scientists have published evidence refuting at least one element of current man-made global warming scares.
500 scientists? I thought the debate was over. I thought there was a consensus.
More than 300 of the scientists found evidence that 1) a natural moderate 1,500-year climate cycle has produced more than a dozen global warmings similar to ours since the last Ice Age
Which I have been maintaining for over a year.
and/or that 2) our Modern Warming is linked strongly to variations in the sun's irradiance.
Which I have also been maintaining for over a year. It's that big burning mass of hydrogen up in the sky. It has cycles. The icecaps on Mars are melting and the only SUVs on Mars are the Mars Rovers and I don't think they're spewing out too much CO2.
"This data and the list of scientists make a mockery of recent claims that a scientific consensus blames humans as the primary cause of global temperature increases since 1850," said Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Dennis Avery.
Anything else?
Other researchers found evidence that 3) sea levels are failing to rise importantly;
But what about Pope Algore's PowerPoint presentation movie, An Inconvenient LieTruth? He showed the seas covering most of Florida. If the Pope is to be believed, we shouldn't be shoveling money into Nawlins, 'cause we won't be alble to build the levees high enough to protect it.
4) that our storms and droughts are becoming fewer and milder with this warming as they did during previous global warmings;
Huh! WTF? That's not what the Pope of
5) that human deaths will be reduced with warming because cold kills twice as many people as heat;
So global warming might not be so bad after all? We're not all gonna die?
and 6) that corals, trees, birds, mammals, and butterflies are adapting well to the routine reality of changing climate.
As they have for millions of years. It's called evolution and survival of the fittest. It's the way nature works.
Despite being published in such journals such as Science, Nature and Geophysical Review Letters, these scientists have gotten little media attention.
No! Could there be some bias in the media? "No. Nothing to see here. Move along.
"Not all of these researchers would describe themselves as global warming skeptics," said Avery, "but the evidence in their studies is there for all to see."
No. They have faith in Pope Algore. He told them the debate is over and there was a consensus.
The names were compiled by Avery and climate physicist S. Fred Singer, the co-authors of the new book Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years, mainly from the peer-reviewed studies cited in their book. The researchers' specialties include tree rings, sea levels, stalagmites, lichens, pollen, plankton, insects, public health, Chinese history and astrophysics."We've had a Greenhouse Theory with no evidence to support it-except a
moderate warming turned into a scare by computer models whose results have
never been verified with real-world events," said co-author Singer. "On the
other hand, we have compelling evidence of a real-world climate cycle
averaging 1470 years (plus or minus 500) running through the last million
years of history. The climate cycle has above all been moderate, and the
trees, bears, birds, and humans have quietly adapted."
As I said earlier, that's the way nature works. Adapt or die. It's been this way for millions and millions of years. It's hubris to think that mankind can cause this and change this.
"Two thousand years of published human histories say that the warm periods were good for people," says Avery. "It was the harsh, unstable Dark Ages and Little Ice Age that brought bigger storms, untimely frost, widespread famine and plagues of disease." "There may have been a consensus of guesses among climate model-builders," says Singer. "However, the models only reflect the warming, not its cause." He noted that about 70 percent of the earth's post-1850 warming came before 1940, and thus was probably not caused by human-emitted greenhouse gases. The net post-1940 warming totals only a tiny 0.2 degrees C.
So we're not all gonna die?
The historic evidence of the natural cycle includes the 5000-year record of Nile floods, 1st-century Roman wine production in Britain
Yep! Wine productiion in Britain. BTW, French wineries are purchasing land in Britain to grow grapes.
and thousands of museum paintings that portrayed sunnier skies during the Medieval Warming and more cloudiness during the Little Ice Age.
As I wrote in an earlier post, this was what doomed the inhabitants of Greenland. When the Little Ice Age hit, they were no longer able to grow forage for their animals. We are not as warm now as it was during the time of the Roman Empire. Yannow, when they were growing grapes in England.
The physical evidence comes from oxygen isotopes, beryllium ions, tiny sea and pollen fossils, and ancient tree rings. The evidence recovered from ice cores, sea and lake sediments, cave stalagmites and glaciers has been analyzed by electron microscopes, satellites, and computers. Temperatures during the Medieval Warming Period on California's Whitewing Mountain must have been 3.2 degrees warmer than today, says Constance Millar of the U.S. Forest Service, based on her study of seven species of relict trees that grew above today's tree line.
Take that Pope Algore!
Singer emphasized, "Humans have known since the invention of the telescope that the earth's climate variations were linked to the sunspot cycle, but we had not understood how. Recent experiments have demonstrated that more or fewer cosmic rays hitting the earth create more or fewer of the low, cooling clouds that deflect solar heat back into space-amplifying small variations in the intensity of the sun.
It's the sun that's doing it. The sun drives climate, not mankind.
How do you like them apples Prosper? Bring on the Wikipedia cites.
From today's The Vent.
Anyone who can't see the wonderful things Jimmy Carter has done since his presidency was over is ignorant.
Let's see, he's built some houses for Habitat For Humanity. That was good.
He's certified some crooked elections in Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
He's stuck his nose in foreign policy by the bogus deal he set up with North Korea which they immediately started violating.
He's run all over the world trying to undermine US foreign policy.
He received a Nobel Peace Prize for trying to undermine foreign policy.
He's defended the barbarism and terrorism of the Palestinians.
I guess I must be ignorant because all I can think of is the Habitat For Humanity stuff. Can anyone help me out here? The bozo who vented sure didn't give me any examples of all the good that Jimmah has done since his presidency, which was the worst presidency of the 20th Century if not of the entire history of our country.
Update: I had completely forgotten about this that someone had alerted me to a while back. I'm glad that B..... and Greg reminded me of it in the comments.
My very fav'rite scene from Full Metal Jacket.
"Easy. Ya just don't lead 'em so much!"
Sumpin' to make me feel better and to piss off liberals. NSFW!
Ahhhhhhhhhhh! I feel a lot better now.
Sent to me by SSG Dave.
From here
SAMPSON COUNTY, N.C. – On the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, students at one high school were not allowed to wear clothes with an American flag.
Under a new school rule, students at Hobbton High School are not allowed to wear items with flags, from any country, including the United States.
I'm so fucking mad I can hardly type this. When I was in school there was an American flag in every classroom. Exactly when did we become the United States of the Fucking World? What has happened to our schools? (Yeah. I know. They have been taken ove by PC, multiculturist, socialist, anti-American assholes.) This is the United States of America. To steal from Misha Rope. Tree. Superintendent of Schools. Some assembly required.
Update: This guy has contact info for Superintendent Dickhead.
The e-mails and phone calls worked.
Again from the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation is this article on immigration.
Immigrant numbers hit all-time highThat's all that border enforcement going on.
Washington —- Nearly one in five people living in the United States speaks a language at home other than English, according to newly released census data that illustrate the wide-ranging effects of immigration.
Whole lot of assimilatin' going on here.
The estimates, from 2006, show the number of immigrants nationwide reached an all-time high of 37.5 million that year, affecting incomes and education levels in many cities across the country. But the effects have not been uniform.
I wonder how many of those immigrants are illegal? And why are some doing better than others?
In most states, immigrants have added to the number of those lacking a high school diploma, with almost half of those from Latin America falling into that category.
Bingo! And I'll bet most of them from Latin America are here illegally.
However, at the other end of the education spectrum, Asian immigrants are raising average education levels in many states, with nearly half of them holding at least a bachelor's degree.
Those are the kind of immigrants we want. Those with education and skills. I'll also bet that most of those immigrants speak English.
"There is no one-size-fits-all policy that you could apply for all immigrant groups," said Mark Mather of the Population Reference Bureau. "I think most of the attention has been on low-skilled workers coming from Mexico. But we have 10 million immigrants from Asia, a number that's growing."
The low-skilled workers from Mexico are illegal. The Asians are prolly not. Plus, the Asians assimilate. On a side note, I wonder if that includes all of the Chinese girls the single 40ish women in this country are adopting? I know two women in the Atlanhta area who have adoped Chinese girls.
In the 28-county Atlanta metro area, the number of Spanish speakers grew by 53 percent from 2000 to 2006. Spanish speakers now total 8.5 percent of the metro area's population, up from 6.9 percent in 2000.
One out of every twelve people in Atlanta are Hispanic and the numbers are growing. Once again, I ask, how many of those are here illegally?
The Asian numbers are growing as well.
The metro area's Asian-language-speaking population has also grown in the past six years, going from 2.3 percent of the total in 2000 to 2.8 percent in 2006.
There are about 33,000 people in metro Atlanta who speak Vietnamese, about 31,000 who speak Korean and about 27,000 who speak Chinese, the census data show.The rest speak a smattering of Japanese, Khmer, Hmong, Thai, Laotian, Tagalog and other Asian and Pacific languages.
They better start working on their English skills and they prolly will.
The data come from the American Community Survey, an annual survey of 3 million households that has replaced the Census Bureau's long-form questionnaire from the once-a-decade census. It does not distinguish between illegal immigrants and those who are in the United States legally.
Of course it doesn't. That wouldn't be politically correct now would it?
About 48 percent of Asian immigrants held at least a bachelor's degree, compared with about 11 percent of immigrants from Latin America. Among people born in the United States, about 27 percent were college graduates."Driving this are people coming from China and India," Mather said. "They are either coming with a bachelor's degree, or they are coming with visas and getting degrees once they arrive."
While the Latinos are cutting our lawns and cleaning our houses.
At the other end of the spectrum, 47 percent of adult immigrants from Latin America lacked a high school diploma, compared with 16 percent of Asian immigrants and 13 percent of people born in the United States.Those numbers are fueling overall increases in the number of high school dropouts in four states: Nevada, Arizona, Colorado and Texas, said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
Go figger.
"It used to be the poor Southern states that had low levels of education and income. Now it is the high-immigration states, as well," Frey said. "But that isn't to say that the second or third generation won't do better, because they will. There is upward mobility."
As long as they learn English. But why bother? We give them translators, bilingual education, and ballots in Spanish. They have their radio stations and television stations. Why bother to learn English?
So you think I'm a racist and I hate Hispanics. Wrong burrito breath. My problem is with those who are in this country illegally. My problem is with those who won't learn English and expect us to learn Spanish or provide them with translators. The biggest impediment to any immigrant to this country is lack of English. Catering to non-English speaking immigrants with bilingual education is not helping them, it is hindering them.
If I were to move to another country, my first task would be to learn the language. We have people who have lived here for years who cannot speak English and refuse to learn it. That is a recipe for failure.
Yannow, I have a special bookmark folder in Firefox called Blogging Fodder. The only bookmark in there is for the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation. I get so much good stuff from that paper and today is no exception.
Let's start with Name That Party in Atlanta. We have an article about wasteful spending by the Atlanta District Attorney's office. In none of the thirty paragraphs in the story does it list DA Paul Howard's party. Paul Howard also has a history of incompetence in trying cases so this is really no surprise.
<Don Surber>So, is Paul Howard a Dimocrat or is he a Dimocrat</Don Surber>
Maybe the AJC thinks it's a given that any black politician (his picture was in the print edition) in Atlanta is a Dimocrat.
This Sunday's comic was hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing. Here it is.
Click for larger picture or go here
I like the "leaves a layer of slime on everything it touches". A perfect description of the Clintons.
I'd like to continue monitoring and responding to all the interesting comment threads we have going, but since I'm going to Bonaire on September 22, I'm off to the pool at Shepherd Center to brush up on my diving skills.
This is how I wanted the WTC to be rebuilt. Stole it from here.
As many of you know, Jonathan Demme made a documentary about our worst president (who has now become our worst ex-president) Jimmah Carter. It tracked his book tour for "Palestine: Peace not Apartheid," an anti-Semitic screed which contains many falsehoods. Naurally, the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation have to cover Jimmah's travels as he attends showings of this film all over the world. His latest stop on his Anti-US Anti-Israel Redemption tour is at Toronto Film Festival. I wonder if they have T-shirts?
Carters received warmly at film festival
Cool! Maybe you guys would like to keep him. Many of us down here don't want him anymore.
The former U.S. president and first lady —- he in a deep blue suit and dark red power tie, she in white blouse and black pants —- entered to a standing ovation from the audience of several hundred that crowded only the 823-seat main floor of downtown's 1,237-seat Ryerson Theatre. The Carters then spoke for at least an hour about what's happened in their lives after their stint in the White House and about the making of the two-hour Carter documentary "Man From Plains," which had its North American debut in Toronto Monday.
Yep! It seemed that it would be hard to top his stint as the worst president ever, but since his meddling in foreign affairs since he has left office, he has quickly become the worst ex-president as well. Of course, everyone who hates the US has come to love Jimmah Carter. (That's the real reason he received the Nobel Peace Prize) As such, Demme's film has received accolades by America hating folks wherever it's been shown.
"Plains," which late last week premiered at the Venice International Film Festival and will be called "Jimmy Carter Man From Plains" when it debuts in theaters later this fall, centers mostly on Carter's late 2006 media tour for his highly controversial best-selling book "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid."
Controversial because most of it is total bullshit.
In the film, some staunch critics label Carter a liar and anti-Semite in connection with his views that, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, some Israeli policy persecutes Palestinians.
Prolly because he is a liar and an anit-Semite.
But there was not a peep of protest during Carter's first appearance here Monday. On at least six occasions, the Carters' comments were met with applause from the otherwise quiet and attentive festival audience.
It would have been interesting to ask the attendees what they think of the US and Israel.
Carter called peace between Israel and the Palestinian people "one of the most important political issues in the world" and lamented that there has been "not a single day of peace talks in the last seven years."
Prolly because the Palestinians keep exploding. Anyway, it wasn't the Jews who walked away from the peace talks. It was Arafat. The Roadmap to Nowhere didn't end because of the Israelis. It never got started because the Palestinians kept exploding.
I can't comment on any more of this bullshit because that is exactly what it is. Total Jimmah Carter bullshit written by a fawning writer from the AJC.
Let me know when this film is gonna be aired in Iran. I bet it gets a standing ovation there as well.
He tried to trademark Islamic Rage Boy but was turned down.
I commented on his site about the gummint dude who said Islam means peace. Islam actually means submission. And the current brand of Islam being preached means submit or die.
Unless, of course, you're a Dimocrat. Then it's just a bumper sticker like the Breck Boy says. Or a Truther. Then it's an inside job. Somehow, these dudes think that Bush is the dumbest guy to ever be president and at the same time he masterminded 9/11 and there have been no leaks about it. Makes perfect sense to me. After all, as Rosie O'Piggo has stated, fire doesn't melt steal but paper wraps rock and rock breaks scissors, which cuts paper.
Well maybe I do. I came across this tidbit while reading this morning's Atlanta Urinal and Constipation.
There's something about Britney Spears that makes Buzz want to see the pop tart on top again.
Maybe you should have watched the MTV Awards last night. For the record, I didn't even know they were on and If I had, I wouldn't have watched them anyway. Anyway, for those of you interested, here's a short clip. "Oh my God! The qualudes are working y'all!"
The Peach Buzz twit continues.
Maybe it's the heartbreaking custody battle with K-Fed. Perhaps it's the wild partying and the whole buzz-cut episode that touched on our sympathies. Whatever it is, the girl has had her share of "oops, I did it again" mishaps. And, well, we're worried sick.
I, for one, am not worried. I'm not even interested in when she will try to resurrect her career by posing for Playboy. After all, she's already exposed her shaved nether regions. (Sorry, no links. There are some things even I won't post.) Now she just lip synced her new "hit" and sleepwalked through its performance on MTV.
Hey Britney! Buh bye!
Got it from here.
They should have a separate category for Sci-Fi and ask about real Sci-Fi like Heinlein, Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, Niven, David Weber and John Ringo. Ya notice I'm up there on History and Math. Those were my two best subjects in school. I didn't do well in science until I got to college. I did very poorly in high school Physics because I didn't have the math. You need Calculus for Physics.
It's also interesting that my Technology / Computer grade was so low. After all, I was a highly trained, highly paid, and highly motivated I/T professional employed by IBM. Of course, I worked on those dinosaur mainframes and this test had nuttin' on them. I take that back, it did have a question that had Fortran in the answer. I loved Fortran. What a cool language. So was REXX, which was similar to Fortran in many ways. BTW, the mainframe still isn't dead yet.
Update: My sister beat me in Science and Math and Technology. (Duh! She's smarter than I am.) I beat here in Sci-Fi but her Sci-Fi is low for the same reason that mine is. There were no questions about hard Sci-Fi. I just barely edged her out in History and Literature. It turns out that I'm dorkier than she is.
CharlieB sent me this article.
So, the president and Mrs. Bush went down to New Orleans to commemorate the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Who knows? Maybe over a latté with leading Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards they discussed spending even more money down there. After all, everyone seems to be saying New Orleans needs more cash.
Why is Nawlins like a boat? It's a hole in the water into which you throw lots of money. It's a city below sea level fer chrissakes. We shouldn't be rebuilding it. We should be moving it upriver. Or maybe, just demolish everything that is under sea level, dumping lots of dirt on it to bring it above sea level, and then rebuilding it.
Here’s a pop quiz: How much money has Uncle Sam spent on New Orleans and the Gulf region since Hurricane Katrina ripped the place apart?
Well, according to Mayor Asshole, Governor Useless, and Senator Mary Landrieu (Don't have a name for her yet.), It's not enough.
The answer is?
I’ll give you the answer because you’ll never guess it. The grand total is $127 billion (including tax relief).
Holy crap! $127 billion? That is one shitload of money sent to the crooks in Louisiana and Nawlins.
That’s right: a monstrous $127 billion. Of course, not a single media story has highlighted this gargantuan government-spending figure. But that number came straight from the White House in a fact sheet subtitled, “The Federal Government Is Fulfilling Its Commitment to Help the People of the Gulf Coast Rebuild.”Huh?
To which I add, "WTF?"
This is an outrage. The entire GDP of the state of Louisiana is only $141 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. So the cash spent there nearly matches the entire state gross GDP. That’s simply unbelievable. And to make matters worse, by all accounts New Orleans ain’t even fixed!
But I betcha there are a whole lot of Louisiana politicians who have gotten richer.
You might be asking, Where in the hell did all this money go?
Nope! I bet there are a whole big bunch of Willian Jeffersons (Dimocrat, LA) socking money away.
Well, the White House fact sheet says $24 billion has been used to build houses and schools, repair damaged infrastructure, and provide victims with a place to live. But isn’t everyone complaining about the lack of housing?
Yeah. Ain't they pissing and moaning about housing?
Perhaps all this money should’ve been directly deposited in the bank accounts of the 300,000 people living in New Orleans. All divvied up, that $127 billion would come to $425,000 per person!
Holy crap! They could buy a lot of bling with those bucks!
After thanking Uncle Sam for their sudden windfall, residents could head to Southern California and buy homes that are now on sale thanks to the sub-prime mortgage crisis and bid up the sagging house prices in the state.
Nope! They'd blow it all on bling, plasma TVs and lottery tickets. Prolly attend some dogfights.
The fact sheet goes on to say that $7.1 billion went to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to rebuild the levees; that the U.S. Department of Education spent $2 billion on local schools; and that the Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries has awarded more than $2.5 million (the pikers). The administration also provided $16.7 billion as part of the largest housing-recovery program in U.S. history.So the billion-dollar question becomes: Where did the rest of that money go?
C'mon Larry, this is Louisiana. It's the New Jersey of the South. Nawlins is Newark with high heat, high humidity, and touist attractions. Don't believe it?
Meanwhile, according to an article by Nicole Gelinas at the Manhattan Institute, New Orleans has earned the distinct honor of becoming the murder capital of the world. The murder rate is 40 percent higher than before Katrina, and twice as high as other dangerous cities like Detroit, Newark, and Washington, D.C.
Holy crap! It beat out Newark. Whoda thunk it? Even Baghdad is prolly safer.
Think of this: The idea of using federal money to rebuild cities is the quintessential liberal vision. And given the dreadful results in New Orleans, we can say that the government’s $127 billion check represents the quintessential failure of that liberal vision. Hillary Clinton calls this sort of reckless spending “government investment.” And that’s just what’s in store for America if she wins the White House next year.
I can harly wait.
Remember President Reagan’s line during the 1980 campaign about how LBJ fought a big-government spending war against poverty, and poverty won? Well think of all this Katrina spending as the Great Society Redux. And it failed. I suppose the current Bush administration would like to label this “compassionate conservatism.” But guess what? That failed, too.
Compassionate conservative = RINO. And for my liberal readers, I have stated many times that the only things I agree with Bush on are the GWOT, tax cuts, and privatizing Social Security. I was against the steel tariffs. I am against the ethanol boondoggle. I think he should have vetoed many out of control spending bills laden with pork that the Republican Congress sent him. Now that the Dims are in power they're showing Republicans that they can put in even more earmarks than the Republicans could. A pox on both their houses.
Right from the start, New Orleans should have been turned into a tax-free enterprise zone.
No Larry. Right from the start, Nawlins should have been turned into a ghost town and moved upriver.
No income taxes, no corporate taxes, no capital-gains taxes. The only tax would have been a sales tax paid on direct transactions. A tax-free New Orleans would have attracted tens of billions of dollars in business and real-estate investment. This in turn would have helped rebuild the cities, schools, and hospitals. Private-sector entrepreneurs would have succeeded where big-government bureaucrats and regulators have so abysmally failed.
Sounds good, but it is still a waste of money. Sometime in the next 50 years (The AGW folks would say sooner since, according to them, there will be more hurricanes and they will be more powerful. And the seas will rise. Fortunately, they are full of shit.), there will be another bad hurricane that will hit Nawlins and we'll go through this bullshit again, especially since Nawlins is sinking. The next bad hurricane will do even more damage.
$127 billion so far. Think how much more President Hillary Rodent Clinton and the Dims will send there. It boggles the mind.
Matt Ashby, GOC's resident Photoshop wizard, sent me this picture of Pope Algore of the Church of AGW.
This one is from Rick.
A newlywed couple was having difficulties accommodating each other’s habits.
The wife was particularly annoyed by the way her husband flossed.
He would say “ooh” or “aah” as he flossed.
After a week of this, the wife could take no more. She yelled at him to stop.
The bewildered husband asked why.
“I just don’t believe in sighing flossers,” she said.
From Don Surber. The first verse.
Well I left Hong Kong when I was 3
And I didn’t have much to take with me
Just this old guitar and an empty bottle of booze.
Now, I broke the law and I had to hide
But money got Hillary on my side
She likes the money raised by this boy named Hsu.
interesting arrangement. He lifted part of that from George Winston's piano version on the album December also from Windham Hill. Two criticisms (Hey I play guitar. I can be a critic) He got a little tinny with his little finger on the E string twice. You'll hear it. The other is with the arrangement. He didn't play the choral part. The choral part? Yeah where they actually sing some words like in this video. Bach wrote this as a choral piece, but what most people remember is the melody between the choral parts. Listen to this.
I'm an atheist, but even I acknowledge that there are many good things that have come from religion like art, architecture, and music. I stand in awe at St. Peter's in Rome. Inside St. Peter's is Michaelangelo's Pieta. The Vatican Museum is incredible. I would like to go to Rome one more time before I die. I only wish it were more accessible for crips.
This one comes from DBolsman.
A blonde finds herself in serious trouble. Her business has gone bust and she's in dire financial straits. She's so desperate that she decides to ask God for help.
She begins to pray .....
"God, please help me. I've lost my business and if I don't get some money, I'm going to lose my house as well. Please let me win the lotto."
Lotto night comes, and somebody else wins it.
She again prays....
"God, please let me win the lotto! I've lost my business, my house and I'm going to lose my car as well."
Lotto night comes and she still has no luck.
Once again, she prays...
"My God, why have You forsaken me? I've lost my business, my house and my car. My children are starving. I don't often ask You for help, and I have always been a good servant to You. PLEASE let me win the lotto just this one time so I can get my life back in order."
Suddenly there is a blinding flash of light as the heavens open. The blonde is overwhelmed by the voice of God Himself
"Sweetheart, work with Me on this . . Buy a ticket."
Here in the US, Labor Day is the official end of summer, so we are done with the beach. It's now football season, so I give you the first wave of the season.
Thanks to Poulsen.
I was informed that I should thank Swiggy for this animation. Thanks. Here's a plug.
Should I be laughing at all those booger eatin' moh-rons who stayed up all night to buy the Apple iPhones now that Apple has dropped the price by $200? Yes, I should.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Rob sent me an article about the president of Mexico Manual Labor Felipe Calderon protesting us enforcing our laws. I don't have a link as he sent me the article rather than the link. Here are some excerpts.
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Felipe Calderon accused the United States on Sunday of stepping up persecution and abuse of undocumented Mexican workers with a crackdown on illegal immigrants.
Which is known in this country as enforcing the law.
The Bush administration is increasing scrutiny and imposing heftier fines on U.S. businesses that employ illegal workers, after deporting a record number of illegal immigrants in 2006.
Which is known as enforcing the law.
"I want to express again an energetic protest at the unilateral measures taken by the U.S. Congress and government which exacerbate the persecution and abusive treatment of undocumented Mexican workers," Calderon said in his state of the union speech.
Here's a novel suggestion: Tell them not to enter this country illegally and then you won't have to get all upset with us for the persecution and abusive treatment of undocumented Mexican workers enforcing the law. Another suggestion (actually two suggestions) STFU and GFY!
Mexico was deeply disappointed at the U.S. Congress' failure to pass a comprehensive overhaul of immigration laws in June despite heavy lobbying by the Bush administration. It is also upset at the United States for building a security fence on parts of the border to keep illegal immigrants out.
Also known as enforcing our southern border.
"The Mexican government will continue to insist firmly ... on the need for an integral immigration reform and the categorical rejection of the building of a wall on our common border," Calderon said to raucous applause.
And many of our citizens will continue to insist that you STFU and GFY as well as insist on our gummint building a wall on our southern border and enforcing the law.
Listen up President Beaner, if you would get your house in order and institute economic reforms, we wouldn't have to worry about illegal workers coming from your country. It's because Mexico is by and large a Third World shithole in spite of record oil revenues and a thriving tourist industry.
Foreign investment helps alleveiate poverty. Most of your economic policies are deterrents to foreign investment. Things like businesses have to be majority Mexican owned. If you just got rid of that one deterrent businesses would be clamoring to build factories in Mexico to take advantage of cheap labor.
Privatize your oil companies. That would help as well.
Eliminate bans on non-Mexicans owning coastal properties. Think of all the construction money for rich Americans building oceanfront homes. Lots of housekeeping jobs as well.
Calderon, a conservative, last week met Elvira Arellano, 32, an undocumented Mexican who became famous among pro-immigration activists for defying deportation orders and claiming sanctuary in a Chicago church for a year.
A previous AOTW.
In a meeting in his Los Pinos residence, he promised to help Arellano obtain a visa for the United States.
Why bother? She has already been deported twice. She can just sneak in again.
Listening to this asshole lecturing us on our border enforcement when what he does on his southern border is what we should be doing on our border cracks me up. What a hypocrite! What an asshole! Too bad this is no longer an open item (Thanks Steve). We could all pitch in and buy it for President Beaner. Instead, we'll just have to be satisfied with giving him the coveted AOTW Award.
Knowing how much Eric and Bou love squirrels, I'm posting this image that I stole off Neal Boortz' site.
Squirrel Jedis.
Since football season is now underway, it's time to post this joke sent to me by Catfish.
Three football fans were out for a ride when one noticed a foot sticking out of the bushes by the side of the road.
They stopped and discovered a nude female, passed out drunk.
Out of respect and propriety, the Packer fan took off his cap and placed it over her right breast. The Vikings fan took off his cap and placed it over her left breast. Following their lead, but with some grumbling, the Bears fan took off his cap and placed it over her girly part.
The police were called and when the first officer arrived, he conducted his investigation. First he lifted up the Packers cap, replaced it and wrote down some notes. Next, he lifted the Vikings cap and replaced it, writing down some more notes.
The officer then lifted the Bears cap, replaced it, then lifted it again, replaced it, lifted it a third time and replaced it one last time.
The Bears fan was becoming annoyed and asked, “What are you, a pervert or something? Why do you keep lifting and looking, lifting and looking?”
“Well,” said the officer, “I am just simply surprised. Normally, when you look under a Bears cap.... you find an asshole.”
So as Hugo Chavez is rewriting the Venezuela constitution to abolish term limits and make himself president for life, let's look at his success so far with the Venezuelan economy.
The Venezuelan economy, under the direction of President Hugo Chávez, is starting to unravel in the currency market.
But how can that be? Hugo was gonna create a socialist utopia in Venezuela just like his buddy Castro has done in Cuba. And the commies did in the USSR and the Warsaw Pact nations. Or like Mugabe is doing in Zimbabwe. Socialist utopias, all of them.
While Venezuela earns record proceeds from oil exports, consumers face shortages of meat, flour and cooking oil. Annual inflation has risen to 16 percent, the highest in Latin America, as Chávez tripled government spending in four years.
All those oil exports and Hugo is having trouble? Shortages in a socialist economy? I'm shocked! High inflation? I'm shocked again! After all, look how Mugabe has inflation under control in Zimbabwe.
Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips are pulling out after Chávez demanded that they cede control of joint venture projects.
They do all the work and after they're done, Hugo kicks them out. Why waste money in Venezuela.
The bolivar has tumbled 30 percent this year to 4,850 per dollar on the black market, the only place it trades freely because of government controls on foreign exchange. That compares with the official rate of 2,150 per dollar set in 2005. Chávez may have to devalue the bolivar to reduce the gap and increase oil proceeds, which make up half the government's revenue.
Ah yes, "government controls on foreign exchange". That always works and is a good way to stabilize your currency.
"This has been the worst-managed oil boom in Venezuela's history," said Ricardo Hausmann, a former government planning minister who now teaches economics at Harvard University. "A devaluation is a foregone conclusion. The only question is when."
That's because the oil boom is being managed by a socialist. Yannow, one of those people who can look at how socialism has failed everywhere it has been tried, but he thinks it has failed because the right people haven't been in charge and there wasn't enough money to make it work.
Chávez, an ally of President Fidel Castro of Cuba, weakened the currency 11 percent in 2005. Chávez imposed restrictions on foreign exchange in 2003 to halt the capital flight that has driven down the bolivar more than 70 percent since he took office in 1999.
Capital flight, huh? That usually happens when the gummint starts seizing nationalizing businesses.
A devaluation would give the government more bolivars from its oil export tax receipts, helping fund Chávez's policies to provide free health care, housing and discounted food to millions of Venezuelans. The government says social programs helped cut the poverty rate to 34 percent in the first half of 2006 from 49 percent eight years earlier.
It all depends on how you define poverty. The nice thing about socialists is how much they loooove the poor. They love them so much that they create more of them.
As the gap between the official exchange rate and the black market rate has increased, so has the incentive to exploit rules, like a regulation that allows people to spend $5,000 a year on their credit cards while traveling abroad.Some Venezuelans travel to nearby Curaçao, where they buy $5,000 of casino poker chips with their credit cards, exchange the chips for cash and then sell the dollars on the black market back in Caracas.
Budding capitalists.
The foreign exchange regulations are part of the controls that Chávez has created in his "march to socialism." The government sets retail prices on hundreds of consumer products and fixes both the maximum rate at which banks can lend and the minimum interest they can pay depositors.
And those of us who lived back in the 70's know how successful price controls were on gas. Gas lines and shortages.
Chávez, who is seeking to end presidential term limits, has taken $17 billion of foreign reserves from the central bank and expropriated dozens of farms that he deemed underutilized.
I'm sure he got the farm idea from his buddy Mugabe. It worked real well in Zimbabwe. It was also a smashing success in the former Soviet Union. They had to buy grain from us.
He nationalized Venezuela's biggest private electric and telephone utilities and took majority stakes in oil projects owned by Exxon and ConocoPhillips. Foreign direct investment was a negative $881 million in the first half as foreign companies pulled out money.
Capitalists are usually smart enough to pull their money out of socialist economies.
Chávez terminated the broadcast license of the country's most-watched television network in May, sparking weeks of student protests. He has threatened to take over cement makers, hospitals, banks, supermarkets and butcher shops, saying they were not obeying price controls.
Socialists are always trying to get around that silly old law of supply and demand and failing miserably. Chavez is the latest ignoramous to try it.
Memo to Chavez: Hugo. Price controls do not work! They have failed every place they have been tried.
Contreras called the government-set prices on many products "fantasy prices" that are below production costs. Milk, chicken, coffee and flour have disappeared from store shelves in Caracas at times this year.
Price controls = shortages. Duh!
So how much longer will it take before Venezuela becomes Cuba? Or Zimbabwe?
Has your job or dealing with everyday life got you stressed out? Take a moment and relax to this.
Thanks to Catfish.
Name That Party Joisey Edition. Reader Thomas alerted me to this. I checked out Don Surber to see if he was all over this and that's where I got the link posted above.
Yo! Jimbo! Youse got anything on this?
A while back I put up a post about one of my sister's neighbors bemoaning the corruption in South Carolina. She was talking about one crooked politician. I asked my sister if she asked her if she was aware of the irony of anyone from New Jersey griping about corruption since Joisey is probably the most corrupt state in the US.
Update: Yep! Jimbo does have sumpin' on it.
As a service to my female readers, I'm starting a series of porn just for women. If you're at work try to keep the orgasmic moans in control. We don't want your coworkers to know that you're looking at porn while you're working.
Yep. We got another maroon from today's Vent
The difference between Democratic and Republican politicians is that the Democrats get caught with girls.
I always thought that Barney Frank, Gerry Studds, and Jim McGreevy were Dimocrats. Maybe he meant got caught drowning girls like Ted "the Swimmer" Kennedy.
This is the last Vick cartoon I'm posting. This one was sent to me by many readers. BTW, since I've been home from my trip there has been only one day that the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation did not have an article about Vick.
Gene sent me this.
Mel Reynolds
Jesse Jackson has added former Chicago Democrat Congressman
Mel Reynolds to Rainbow/PUSH Coalition's payroll. Reynolds was among the 176 criminals excused in President Clinton's last-minute forgiveness spree. Reynolds received a commutation of his six-and-a-half-year federal sentence for 15 convictions of wire fraud, bank fraud, and lies to the Federal Election Commission. He is more notorious, however, for concurrently serving five years for sleeping with an underage campaign volunteer.
This is a first in American politics:
An ex-congressman who had sex with a subordinate...
won clemency from a president who had sex with a subordinate...
then was hired by a clergyman who had sex with a subordinate.
His new job?
Ready for this??
YOUTH COUNSELOR
Lest you think I'm making this up, I checked it out.
Aren't these Dimocrats wonderful? They are all upset about Bush commuting Libby's conviction for lying about a crime that wasn't committed but Clinton pardoning 176 criminals, many who made donations to his library, was OK.
Mel Reynolds is a youth counselor. "Lemme counsel ya baby! No! No! It's suck. Blow is just a figure of speech!"
Alcee Hastings was impeached when he was a judge and lost his seat on the bench. That's OK. He just ran for Congress and is now sitting there.
Of course there's always that bloviating blowhard Ted 'the Swimmer" Kennedy.
Larry Craig is now acting like a Dimocrat and has decided he may not resign. I'm waiting for him to announce that he's leaving the Republican Party to become a Dimocrat. They reward their scumbags.
Update: Here is a list of Clinton's pardons.
Don Surber linked. Thanks!
One of the nice things about the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation is I can usually find sumpin' in it to blog about. For example, The Vent, which is a forum for readers. They can call in and vent on whatever is on their minds. The Vent Guy chooses which ones to publish or to put on their website. In yesterday's paper they printed one from a booger eatin' moh-ron.
If our federal government functioned like it should, New Orleans would be better than new today, two years after Katrina. But it doesn't, and it isn't.
No, you fucking maroon, if the federal gummint functioned as it should it would have written off Nawlins. It is not the function of the federal gummint, no matter what you have been taught in your failing gummint school, to throw good money after bad by rebuilding a city that sits below sea level!!! And is sinking!!! We would be better off writing off Nawlins and rebulding it up the river where it would not be susceptible to flooding.
And another thing, why should the rest of us be required to bail out a bunch of idiots who just reelected Mayor Asshole who demonstrated his incompetence during the disaster by refusing to evacuate the city.
The same bunch of idiots reelected William Jefferson, a Dimocrat, who had $90K of cold hard cash bribe money in his freezer.
I'm from Missouri. Every few years the Mississippi River and/or the Missouri River would flood and mess up houses that were built in the flood plain. What did the federal gummint do? They would give the owners money so they could rebuild their houses in the flood plain!!!
Once again, it is not the responsibility of the federal gummint to bail out dickheads who build their houses in a flood plain just like it is not the responsibility of the federal gummint to rebuild a city that is below sea level. What's even more ironic is the same people who want to rebuild Nawlins are the same people who believe in Pope Algore and his religion of AGW. If his prophecies come true (which fortunately they won't) the seas will rise and Nawlins will be even further below sea level.
Listen up asswipe! If the federal gummint functioned like it should, like the Founders set it up to do, the federal gummint would tell Nawlins to GFY and do its own rebuilding.
Unfortunately, we're gonna throw money down that rathole and half of it will go as graft to corrupt Nawlins politicians. Within the next 50 years there will be another monster hurricane and we'll repeat the process over again.
It's your money that's being thrown down this cesspool folks.
Today, in the United States, we have a holiday to celebrate the working man. To me it's just a regular day because in my life, every day is a holiday. Anyway, the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation had an article about the American workforce.
U.S. workers rank with world's bestGeneva —- American workers stay longer in the office, at the factory or on the farm than their counterparts in Europe and most other rich nations, and they produce more per person over the year.
I worked a few 60 hour weeks until my CDSM© performed his management magic and demotivated me. When I retired I was working a French week, 32 hours a week. I came in late and left early. Even at that, they had to drop one of my projects when I left because my replacement (who worked 40 hours a week) didn't have the time. Even goofing off, I was more productive (he says as he is dislocating his arm patting himself on the back) than he was. Shucks! I was good and I know it.
They also get more done per hour than everyone but the Norwegians, according to a U.N. report being released today, which said the United States "leads the world in labor productivity."
Huh? WTF? If the Norwegians get more done per hour, how come we lead the world in productivity?
The average U.S. worker produces $63,885 of wealth per year, more than their counterparts in all other countries, the International Labor Organization said in its report. Ireland comes in second at $55,986, followed by Luxembourg at $55,641, Belgium at $55,235 and France at $54,609.
How did Ireland get there? It cut taxes and created a more pro-business environment.
So how did they arrive at these figures?
The productivity figure is found by dividing the country's gross domestic product by the number of people employed. The U.N. report is based on 2006 figures for many countries, or the most recent available.
And we have a high GDP (and it continues to grow) and we have low unemployment. If we had a Dimocrat president, the LSM would be screaming from the rooftops about our unemployment figures. We're at around 4.6 percent. France just got down to 6.9 oercent. If our unemployment was that high, we'd be in a recession. My French friend Prosper said that was OK because they take such good care of their poor with their social programs. I countered with just how bad our poor have it in the US.
Only part of the U.S. productivity growth, which has outpaced that of many other developed economies, can be explained by the longer hours Americans are putting in, the ILO said.
Maybe we're just better workers.
The United States, ac-cording to the report, also beats all 27 nations in the European Union, Japan and Switzerland in the amount of wealth created per hour of work —- a second key measure of productivity.
But I thought Japan and the EU were gonna put us out of business?
Good news for France.
Norway, which is not an EU member, generates the most output per working hour, $37.99, a figure inflated by the country's billions of dollars in oil exports and high prices for goods at home. The United States is second at $35.63, about a half-dollar ahead of third-place France.
There ya go Prosper. You can shout, "We're number 3! We're number 3!" and if Sarkosy gets his way, and overtime is not taxed, ya'll might have a chance to catch us. I'd like to say I doubt it except that it looks like the Dimocrats are gonna get a chance to torpedo our economic growth.
Seven years ago, French workers produced over a dollar more on average than their American counterparts. The country led the United States in hourly productivity from 1994 to 2003. The U.S. employee put in an average 1,804 hours of work in 2006, the report said. That compared with 1,407.1 hours for the Norwegian worker and 1,564.4 for the French.
America improved and France declined. What happened in 2003? Bush cut taxes which started the current economic boom. What's gonna stop it? Dimocrats are gonna raise taxes, especially if they retain Congress and Hillary Rodent Clinton gets elected.
America's increased productivity "has to do with the ICT (information and communication technologies) revolution, with the way the United States organizes companies, with the high level of competition in the country, with the extension of trade and investment abroad," said Jose Manuel Salazar, the ILO's head of employment.
USA! USA! USA!
Have a great Labor Day everyone!
Yeah. Gotta have a Larry Craig cartoon. Got this one here.
So let it be written, so let it be done (link from Don Surber. Am I good or what?
From my post back in January:
So let's see. California is only gonna buy power from plants that meet California's clean air regulations. So automatically that is gonna cut the supply side of the equation. You know which equation I'm talking about don'tcha? It's that supply and demand thing thatcommunistsliberals are always trying to circumvent.California is gonna limit the supply of electricity by cutting the producers they can buy power from. They're also probably not gonna let the price they pay float. Hello shortages.
Gun. Bullet. Head.
From yesterday's Pravda San Francisco Chronicle.
About 2,400 people were without power Sunday as the city's electrical grid strained in the midst of a continuing statewide heat wave.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Take that you Granola munching assholes! And according to Pope Algore it's only gonna get worse.
The California Independent System Operator, which oversees the state's power grid, said no major shortages were expected through Monday. Still, it urged customers to continue conserving electricity by setting air conditioning thermostats higher and waiting to use major appliances until after dark.
I got my thermostat set at 74 and I'm as cool as could be. I'm also doing my laundry and it's noon here in Beautiful Dunwoody. No shortages in Georgia or in West Virginia where Surber lives. Maybe you buttmunches in California may want to rethink your moratorium on power from coal fired plants. It would be wonderful if a bunch of Hollywood liberals lost their power.
Try as you might, you cannot repeal the Law of Supply and Demand.
Update: Don Surber linked. Thanks Don!
One from Richard.
A farmer had a horse that could understand nearly anything. The story
of the horse spread, and soon scientists showed up to study it. Sure
enough, the horse learned everything that was presented to it, with one
exception: geometry. The scientists were puzzled, but the old farmer
knew the problem.
They were putting Descartes before the horse!
Yep! I'm linking to Unix-Jedi's wife again because she is pointing out one of the reasons that poor people are poor. I figger it will only be about another week before I'm on her blogroll. She's met me so she knows that I'm smart, good looking, and I have the hots for her best friend (who is a mega-babe). If only her best friend didn't live in West Jesus Georgia and was young enough to be my daughter. Sigh!
Dear Vet From Hell - Lisa Kay wanted me to forward a picture of her son to you since your e-mail address doesn't work for her. I have the same one that she does for you so that won't work. But, she did give me permission a while back to post a picture of her son, so here he is for all the ladies to drool over.
He's a diver.
A video blonde joke for those of you who haven't seen this yet.
She is a pretty girl so she'll do OK.
Summer ain't over yet, so we're still at the beach.
