Bill O'Rielly Hates Me and My iPod

That Bill Orielly, you got to love such an "independent" sort who is not alligned with any political party. He reminds me of the crotchety old uncle that everybody has that is always bitching about stuff. Except of course Bill is a lot nuttier. So today he comes out and insults me two ways, as a 'computer geek' and an iPod lover.

"I don’t own an iPod. I would never wear an iPod...If this is your primary focus in life - the machines...it’s going to have a staggeringly negative effect, all of this, for America...did you ever talk to these computer geeks? I mean, can you carry on a conversation with them?"

Not that I would want Bill O'Rielly to have a conversation with me. I mean what could be possibly talk about? Maybe something I heard on the Real Time w/Bill Maher podcast, or some liberal biasness that I heard on one of NPRs many podcasts, or the liberal invectum of Democacy Now or any one of several 'left wing smear sites'. But 'the machines' are not my primary focus in life. That would be, like Mr. ORielly's, poon-tang, of course.

I just don't see where he gets all these "staggeringly negative effects for America" with what is really just an alternative radio. I suppose I should chuck the ol' iPod and go back to listening to the same old tired shit that Clear Channel would have me listen to. Clear Channel and their insistence on extremely bland and safe playlisting are what inspired me to buy an iPod in the first place. Besides NPR, the only other option to said blandness was the talk radio of Murray's 1340AM, where if I so desired I could listen to Mr. Orielly. About the only times I ever did that was when NPR had some classical crap on and I could not, for the love of God, listen to Old Time Rockin' Roll or Sweet Home Alabama one more fucking time!!!!!! You know, I really liked those songs the first couple thousand times that I heard them. But now thanks to Clear Channel, I equate "Classic Rock" to "boring suckage that I've heard way too many times before".

But I digress. About the only thing in common CC and BO have in common is that they both suck and they both pollute the nation's airwaves with crap. And they both made me want to get an iPod.

So to all my fellow iPod lovers, I provide the following link only out of sheer irony, I sure as hell wouldn't want you to actually listen to this goon. Behold the link to the Bill O'Reilly's Talking Points podcast! Tune in, the "War on Christmas" is about to escalate I'm sure.

Christmas Pictures

So the other day, my wife and I went down to this thing at the library where the Calloway County Humane Society was taking Christmas Pictures of people and their pets as a fund raiser. We took our dog down there thinking we would at least get some cards out of the deal to send to all the relatives. Well, we just got them back yesterday.

I could be described as 'less that satisfied' with how I might have turned out in the photo, and I suppose I could have shared the picture with you. As you can see from the previous post, I am capable of uploading an image. But believe me, gentle reader, I spare your delicate sensibilities by leaving it to your imagination, at least with regards as to where my own participation lies.

Few people I know would describe me as a vain man. But I must confess that the full extent of my current creeping baldness has some how eluded me until now. That is, until I got that Christmas picture back. The first thing I thought when I saw it was "Oh, my Gosh, I have turned into one big forehead!" So I ended up dwelling on this a little bit. I actually got out the wife's hand mirror so I could take a good look at the top of my head. Flash back to high school and those early Rush albums that I haven't heard in years: "I think I'm Going Bald". Then on top of this issue of the exposure of my scalp to ever increasing sunlight, I've noticed that my winter beard is suddenly awash with gray hair that wasn't there the last time I had one.

Not like I was depressed or anything, but the next night I say to my wife something about my ever increasing forehead. She says something about what she didn't like about herself in the picture. Then she says to me "But you know as much as you don't like that about you and I don't like that about me, the only thing anybody else that I showed that picture to said was 'You both look so happy'".

Like an epiphany I was immediately hit with the realization that 1) I was being very, very shallow, 2) bare scalp or not, I am still a very, very, lucky man, and 3) my wife is a wise, wise, woman.

Well, a lot of the time she is, anyway. She did marry me after all.

I made the switch to Blogger Beta!

Well, they have been bugging me for months but I finally did it. As I first described in my "Hello World" post, I had some trouble in the whole blogspot - blogger transition and was some what leary of doing it. It would seem my fears are unfounded, it was quite painless. Haven't really played with any of the new features though. But for a start, I will label this one. We will call this my first 'tech' post.

Saturday Night with Buddy Guy

Last Saturday night I had one of the best times I have had all year. I went to see Buddy Guy at Harrah's Casino in Metropolis. I managed to get backstage and get in on the "meet & greet", got his autograph and Dad and I had our pictures taken with him. They allowed the fans to take pictures for the first ten minutes of the show, which I thought was neat. My buddy John took the following:

A good time was had by all. It was an awesome show, if your into that kind of thing. I wouldn't mind seeing him again.

Frat Boys Sue Borat for Being an Asshole. Kettle, thy Name is Black

I read this with some amusement. Some frat boys get conned into acting like their typical Saturday night selves in front of a camera and now they are mad because it was used in a scene in the biggest movie in the country. They claim "humiliation, mental anguish, and emotional and physical distress, loss of reputation, goodwill and standing in the community...".

OMG, SOMEONE GOT THOSE POOR FRAT BOYS DRUNK AND TOOK ADVANTAGE OF THEM!!! Give me a freaking break here.

They actually got $200 for it, which is $200 dollars more than those girls on the Girls Gone Wild videos that are plastered all over late night TV (minus the t-shirt).

I know I can't be the only one who sees the irony here. I haven't seen the movie yet but I hope to, and when I do, I'm gonna take particular glee in the scene where the drunk frat guys wish they had their own slaves and "the minorities got all the power."

What a couple of dumbass fuckwads. Future Republican leaders in the making I am sure.

Wow. I Didn't Really Expect This

You know, folks (all 2 of you reading this), I just don't know what to think about these election results. I come from a family of gamblers. A family that got through college working the local poker scene. I learned the game of craps in the corner of my saintly grandmother's kitchen. I inherited a spirit of gaming from my genes, but myself has always stayed away from any serious gambling, and by serious I mean 5$ blackjack tables (Where did all the $2 tables go?).

I would have never suspected we had a Democratic congress in the cards if you had asked me last Monday night. That is probably why it is a good thing that I didn't get the gambling jones that a lot of the rest of my family did. Personally, I am just too cheap for it. But I think in a free society it should be regulated instead of outlawing it. Sure there are plenty of compulsive personalities who manage to make themselves a burden on society because of it, but like drugs or sex or easy money, the lure of vice will be there regardless of the rule of law. Some of those things are better left outlawed but I don't think that gaming is one of them, it should be regulated to keep it fair, you know like the stock markets are.

But I digress. I started writing about the election. I'm thrilled at the outcome only because I think a bunch of corrupt, entrenched power-mongers/theocrats, along with a bunch of energy company apologists, drug company lobbyists, and defense industry pawns have been served, with walking papers to be exact. But I worry that the pressure to maintain this hold on Democratic power will drive these same long ignored Democrats straight into the arms of the "donors" who will finance their next election. That seems to be the way things work up there.

To the Democrats coming into power, remember this: Halibuton will finance your campaign more than anyone making minimum wage. Insurance companies will write more campaign checks than people who can't afford their prescribed medication. HMOs will finance more campaigns than sick people ever will. Bankrupt persons will never match the re-election contributions of predatory lenders. Corporate polluter will pay more for political contributions than they ever will in fines. The longer you hold on to power the less the people who put you into power will matter to you.

I guess we can only thank God and the founding fathers that in the end, it all boils down to our votes, and not our pocketbooks, and I will concede that the founding fathers had a much more restrictive version of "our" (the "our" of the time being almost exclusively white males of the Christian persuasion).

"Some kind of balance" has been restored to DC. I make no predictions on its outcome, happy days are most likely not here again, but the pale horse rider is probably not yet ready to make an appearance. I don't think over 200 years of Democracy is going to be destroyed because free elections put the wrong guy in office. It has happened before and the only time it really became a serious problem was when the basic democratic liberties and freedoms became a lesser goal of a "more secure" state.

I believe in personal accountability. I believe in hard work making a better life for yourself and your family. I believe in fiscal responsibility. So why am I not a Republican? Because they have failed with the very things they have said they champion. Every thing they seem to have done in the last twelve years seems to have been in the interest of people with money, be it "death tax" reform (which I understand to be UN-INCORPORATED incomes in excess of 6 figure salaries the likes of which most Americans will never see) and lowering taxes for people earning in excess of $300,000. Way to appeal to your so-called BASE.

I do think that a 35% tax rate should be the top end of the tax rates though. A lot of people don't know that until the 80s, they went all the way up to 70%. Rich people put a stop to that real quick, and I can't say that I blame them. But I will be hard pressed to think that they should be taxed at the same 10% that the poorest among us are taxed at. Unless there wasn't a Federal budget deficit of ... what was it again 7-70 TRILLION FUCKING DOLLARS DEPENDING ON WHO YOU ASK!!!!!!

I have no expectations that the Democrats will do better though. It is only a matter of time before monied interest buy them out and I will be looking for the Republicans, who after maybe a decade of grubbing for money from THE PEOPLE (instead of big moneyed corporations) might pull another "Contract with America" thing, to get us to buy what they're selling again for the time being.

That is my only prediction. One side gonna get the power until they start to suck, then it goes to some one else. When that happens, it's not the end of the world. It is the realization of an observation that Ben Franklin made over 200 years ago, we have the worst possible form of government, but it's the best thing we got so far.

May God Bless the United States of America and all the people in it (REGARDLESS of party affiliation*).

* or race, creed, color, religion, gender or, dare I say it, Sexual Preferance (gasp**).