Swift Terror

Re: the smoking in films, it reminds of how "they" are removing tobacco products from famous photos and such. They took out the cigarette on the cover of a Beatles album, the took out the cigar in a famous photo of FDR. Now this? Who are these people for crissakes.

Metal fan here. Reading through your list, it looks like you're into darker stuff than I, but I'll through in a few that I've recently been listening to. Blind Guardian--Twist in the Myth. As good as their previous works, high quality stuff. Manowar--Sons of Odin. I've only heard the 2 songs released on the preview CD. Sure it's over the top and cheesy, but the Gods of War track sounds like nothing else. Hammerfall--Threshold. They continue the downward trend. Not that great, only a couple memorable songs.

I'm jealous

I've been listening to Dennis Miller's new radio show. It's very entertaining. He does not get in-depth into topics the way that a Rush or Boortz would and he always has 2 guests per hour. I think he's just trying to feel his way through the beginning here, not wanting to do too much monolouge stuff. But the jokes he gets off are classic and hilarious. He of course works in the world of the simile, and they come hard and fast, like a 10-cup-a-day coffee drinker working a gatling gun. I would put the url to his site, but my workplace computer is denying me access due to a filter. This filter is very hit and miss, as evidenced by my ability to post this blog entry right now. In fact it's probably watching my every keystroke.... Donald Trump is now selling steaks through the mail--kind of like the Omaha Steaks that you can order. In what is certain to be a very good deal, Trump will send you what he calls the greatest steaks in the world. Now, I--oh wait, I just saw the prices--hmm, $999 sounds reasonable for 16 steaks and 24 burgers. Or you can really save a lot of money and get the Classic Collection. The CC features 4 steaks and 12 burgers for $199. Forget Biggs, I'm going exclusively with Trump from now on to meet my meat needs. George Lucas thinks that Spiderman 3 is "silly" Um, yeah, George, you did alright with those first 3 movies, but a lot of people agree that your next 3 attempts fell a little short. In fact one could make the case they appeal more to the grade school set than the adult world.

So I was having dinner at my wife's parents and her twin sister was there, the one who is a lawyer who works for the Ohio Supreme Court. For some unknown reason, my wife made a comment about global warming, not a political for-or-against comment, but a flippant comment about it hopefully being warm when we go to Cape May, NJ in June. Well, this started a mild shitstorm between her parents and her sister. Her sister believes Al Gore, the whole deal, a true believer. Her parents are evil conservatives, listen to Rush, and generally don't like Al Gore. I wanted to speak up during their debate, but I just didn't want to argue with Lora, she's a nice person. I know, I made a mistake. Just misinformed, thanks to the media. It isn't her fault. With few exceptions (the NYT did in fact run an article weeks ago about the mistakes in Al Gore's film), the mainstream media treats Al Gore's version of global warming--at least the man'made part--as gospel. And the only place you consistently get news of scientists who are debating this stuff is through Conservative outlets--and I know damn well she doesn't listen/read any of these (she really went off on Rush and Bill O'Reilly at one point). And it didn't help that her parents were not exactly doing a thorough job of presenting the other side. Oh well, next time I'll try and speak up, hopefully she'll respect my opinion. A Cincinnati restaurant owner, Jeff Ruby, told O.J. Simpson to get out of his place in Louisville during the kentucky Derby weekend. Ruby's steakhouse in Cincinnati, The Precinct, is first-class, the absolute best meat you will ever put in your mouth. Simpson's lawyer is calling Ruby a racist and is sueing him. The case kind of falls apart, because of a couple things: 1. Michael Jordan was seated at the table shortly after Simpson left. 2. Ruby has pictures of himself...with O.J. at his restaurants in Cincinnati back in the day, before the Juice offed two people. O.J. was smiling.

Ohio has followed in the "progressive" footsteps of other parts of the country and has completely banned indoor smoking. This includes such niche establishments as cigar bars. That's right, a place that is deliberating catering to smokers now has to ban it and put up a silly little sign that says No Smoking and has a hotline phone number on the sign to call to report violators. Yes, the narcissistic ninnies have made sure that whiners and tattle-tales can call a number to tell on smokers. Like running to mommy to tell on your classmate for doing something wrong. There was a case where a useless ninny called to complain about "Anthony's", a local cigar bar. This person, when queried, had never been to Anthony's and has no intention of ever going, she just heard that people were still smoking cigars there even though the ban had just gone into affect (or effect?) that day. Thankfully, the ban so far does not include plays being performed at the Aronoff Center, plays which include the character's smoking on stage. They did have signs at every entrance explaining that there will be lit cigarettes used during the production. But fear not, I do not doubt for one second that this too will eventually be banned, as it is in New York City for Broadway plays. I've noticed that the FOX show "Drive" hasn't been on in a few weeks. Maybe it's been cancelled or just put a hiatus. It's not that great, but I mark out for a 1970 Dodge Challenger with a Hemi 426 being featured in a primetime network show.

Wow, so it was cancelled. And now we get to see a half-assed conclusion, great. Oh well, not a big loss at all. That reminds me of the show on last year about the 1980s teenagers and one of them was murdered by one of their own and the show played out in a timeline starting in the 1980s. They cancelled it abruptly, without anything being resolved. The show's creator tried to put the conclusion on the web so that viewers could find out who the murderer was, but the network banned him from doing so, pulling rank on him because they owned the rights, etc. Hopefully with Drive, they'll at least show who fucking wins the race.

Why can't these organizations that get shaken down by JJ just tell him to f off. The Braves general manager should have simply said, "You have no business telling me how to run a professional baseball team. Have a nice day." Speaking of your roadrage/tailgating episode, I do the same thing and then take it too the next level. I slow down and simply keep slowing--even to the point of coming to a complete stop--until they pass. I'm talking about normal roads here, not the highway. If they are in such a hurry, then go ahead, pass me and tough shit if there are cars coming the other way, you'll just have to wait.

The right-hand turn on a red light, is, as even anti-American TV host Jeremy Clarkson has said, a great contribution to civilization by America. It kicks ass to able to turn right at a red light, knowing all the while poor saps all over Europe are not able to do this simple task. Yet sometimes it can become the source of road rage. You see, some people regard this traffic rule as meaning you do not have to actually stop, you can just roll through your turn. Not so. You do in fact have to stop, just as you would at a stop sign, and then you can be on your merry way. The following happens to me on a regular basis. I'll come to a stop light in a right hand turn lane, and let's say there's no traffic around. I'll still come to a stop, because, well, that's the traffic law. And yet, about 75%-90% of the time, if there is someone behind me that person will go "Bakersfield Chimp". (That was the chimpanze that mauled the living hell out of his former owner in Bakersfield, California a few years ago.) They'll act as those I just raped their child, get all pissed off, tailgate, etc, etc. Fuck these people. They are just another segment of society that needs to be thinned out. I mentioned a situation in kkk's blog about installing a ceiling fan/light in our bedroom at the behest of my wife. Well, there was no existing hole in the ceiling and in addition to not knowing what is needed to hang a ceiling fan where no hole existed, I also knew nothing about how to do the wiring. So enter my brother-in-law, who my wife recruited to do it. I have no idea if he volunteered or is my wife asked, don't know, don't care, I wasn't present when it was decided that he would do this. Of course, it was understood that I would be helping him. First, a quick background on this brother-in-law. He's married to my wife's older sister and has a 2 year old child. Early this fall we all went to Florida on vacation, where we stayed at a rental house. This guy was detached the whole time, didn't seem to interested in his family at all. One day we were at the beach and he volunteered to go back to the house and bring back some snacks for everyone. So he took off, and I found out later that he drove off to a burger place and had himself a meal before he ever bothered to come back to the beach. (Food seems to be this guy's main motivation in life--the entire vacation to him was getting to the next meal.) Then on the second to last day of the trip, we all went out to a nice restaurant overlooking the ocean. Before the dinner he had gone out and bought a fifth of Jim Beam and proceeded to get blind drunk. He got up during the meal and never returned. I went to go look for him (while his wife is sitting there embarrassed and mortified). I find him in a parking lot throwing up all over the place. His wife comes down, slaps his ass and comes back up to finish the meal. He wanders off while we drive back to the house. He shows up several hours later, etc, and it was awkward for the rest of the time. So now they are apparently OK and life goes on. However, they were in a fight while this guy is over with me putting this damn ceiling light in. He is acting like a complete ass, taking out all this on me. I like to do tasks in a calm, patient manner, while he is the definition of impatience and it was only compounded by this fight he's in with his wife. Like I give a fuck about his problems, make your marriage better and quit acting like an ass. So on the last day of the "installation" he leaves without finishing the job, and I'm left to attached and wire the thing to the ceiling by myself, which should be a two-man job due to the weight of the thing. And my wife wants to get THREE more lighting fixtures for the kitchen, the area between the kitchen and the living room, and the dining room.

That's funny as hell and is a perfect explanation of male/female differences. Mr. KKK: Sees nice big towels that he can use after a shower so he uses them. Mrs KKK: Sees somewhat fancy, nice looking towels so wants to NEVER use them, only wants to put them on display for company. Welcome to the world of marriage, sfaJack.

Hang on a sec, the towels we got you are used for decoration only, like when company comes to the house? I thought you were using them everyday because they're big and stuff. Well either way that's cool, but too bad about the repaint. Luckily, my wife is not at all into repainting anything. Unluckily, she is into adding/replacing lighting fixtures throughout the house. Including a light/ceiling fan in the bedroom which turned into a disaster for me...but I'll relate that fun story in my own blog entry. It involves an a-hole relative, so I'm sure you will appreciate it.

My parents went on a tour of the Toyota plant in Kentucky last month. They said it was amazing and commented on the incredible worker incentives. They give a new car to certain workers based on some kind of efficiency rating, I can't remember exactly what they had to do. But they get a new car, taxes, delivery all paid for. Toyota is also going to be in Nascar this season. Surprisingly, no riots yet from the xenophobic and racist rednecks of the South, no incidents at all. How can this be since we all know they are scum down there, heck even the British know that.

Top Gear is a television show broadcast in England on BBC2. It features three men who drive and review cars, mainly high performance cars. They also inject a lot of humor into their shows. It is well produced and very funny. Last year they filmed an episode, which just aired on February 9th, where they travel to America and drive from Florida to New Orleans. This could have been a great episode. The southerners love their cars and it would have been great to see the hosts interact with them on this shared interest. Instead they chose to delibrately provoke and insult the people they encountered, and presented an entire show with the messsage that "America is a horrible place and the people who live there are the worst people on Earth". They always behaved in a condescending way toward everyone they encountered. They drove around with bumper stickers that read "Nascar Sucks", "Man love is OK", "I'm Bi", "Hillary for President". Now 3 of those are fine, but why provoke people with "Nascar Sucks"? Three British snobs putting down a popular sport right in the heart of the south is asking for trouble. Their attitude right from the start was "we are so much better than these scum and we'll act accordingly". There was an incident at a gas station in Alabama where some guys were threatening them. Some say this was staged by the Top Gear producers--it could have been, I don't know. One of the hosts wrote a blog entry about it and did not allude to any fakery. And of course a lot of Brits are posting on the Top Gear about how great it was, how "scary" Alabama is, how great it is to see the U.S. deservedly trashed, etc. I guess I could go to London, drive around with a bumper sticker that says "Soccer is a trash sport" or "Formula 1 Sucks", act like a holier-than-thou jerk and get it on video. Then I could edit it to keep in all the angry Brits' reactions in and show it on American TV and call the people of England all kinds of fun names and talk about how awful they are.

You wuss. I drove in to work through the shit. Unless your office closed? I'm the only member of our group that's even at work today...I guess my internet browser will be working overtime. Hey, at least we've got driveway shoveling to look forward to.

24 has been very good in previous seasons. This season it is terrible. Lost has jumped the shark, really sometime last season. Heroes jumped the shark on about episode two or three. First, 24: 1. The writing this season is amateurish. The dialogue is horrible. It is filled with loads and loads of exposition. Maybe the show's producers have received complaints from viewers that are having difficulty following the storyline. Whatever the reason, the whole thing comes across as a show for 9 year olds. 2. Absurb, implausible goings-on. I'm not talking about Jack getting across LA freeways in 3 and a half minutes--the show has always had over the top storylines and that's OK. I'm talking about little things such as: Jack's brother being left alone with his father. There is no way Jack's brother would be left alone in a room with the IV still attached to his arm, let alone with another person present, even his own father. And the repetitive nature of the general plot is getting old. Same thing all over again. A couple hours and a new layer of the bad guy hierarchy is revealed; last hour's top bad guy is shown getting a cell phone call from yet another, different bad guy who is above him, and so on. Second, Lost: Lost is a....lost cause. It started to suck last year. The spiraling plots are just a bunch of tangents going nowhere. Nefarious plot tangents brought up last year have never been resolved. You can't do that to an audience. Third, Heroes: Never got going. Great potential, jumped the shark right out of the gate. The cheerleader's father sucks and is a lousy character. The chick with the evil twin sucks--horrible storyline, horrible character. Everytime the bitch comes on, either one of them, the show grinds to a halt. Same with the cheerleader. Fucking awful character, the shows grinds to a halt every second she is on screen. Getting through each fucking episode is like wading through molasses. The dumbasses writing the show have no idea how to keep the audience interested. Just because you through in a twist 58 minutes into the show means nothing.

I thought I could stay away forever. I failed. Nothing really new going on, job is fine, house is fine, etc.

Same here in Southern Ohio. Today was the day I thought I'd be not coming in to work, but here I am. It wasn't that bad this morning. But tomorrow's another thing. I can easily see staying home if the shit/snow storm hits. Nice colon thingy. I'll have to find that picture, Lushus, sounds hilarious. ST, aka Walter Bellhaven

We all know the manly men that play Football, Baseball, Basketball, and Hockey are true athletes, but what of other sports? Tell me if the participants of the much maligned sports below are real athletes or not. Pro Tennis player PGA Tour Golfer Race car driver (including NASCAR, Formula 1, Indy) Pro Soccer player (MLS, English Premier League, etc.) Pro Beach Volleyball X Games (including skateboading, snowboarding, bikes on ramps)

I'd say yes for all except skateboarders and half-pipe snowboarding. Skateboarding? Please.

So I'm in a stall in the men's room at work and some guy comes in and takes the stall right next to me. There are open stalls farther down but he takes the one right next to me and let's loose, making all kinds of noises. What the hell, what kind of sick freak intentionally sits right next to some guy in the men's room? And don't give me this crap about he didn't know someone was in the stall. The doors in our men's room hang open. It's easy to tell if they are occupied. And I'm a guy who was forced to take a crap in a room full of open toilets with oh, about 25 other guys. That's right no stalls. It was circa 1984, Fort Benning, Georgia, U.S. Army Airborne School. Yeah, that was fun. And noboby could come up with a funny line to break the uneasyness in the room. So we just took our crap and got outta there. And now a special announcement to help you save money. If you have a Pep Boys auto parts store in your area, they have Purolator oil filters on sale for 49 cents, after a mail-in rebate. They also have Pennzoil Full Synthetic on sale for $1.99 a qt, also after rebate. To demonstrate how cool that is, consider that Mobil 1 Full Synthetic is $5.50 a qt. That's awesome and come on, it's not that big a deal to change your own oil.

I always go for the handicap stall myself, except that recently I have had to alter that choice. The handicap stall where I work has been overflowing rather consistently. I'm not taking any chances, I just opt for one of the others. Oh, and we have those gay auto-flush urinals. They don't flush until it detects that you have stepped away from the urinal a couple of feet. God, those things suck.

Working for giant evil corporation as I do, I don't have to worry about such things. But sometimes I do have to put in a Help Ticket over IT matters and it sometimes is a burden speaking to the person in India. But most times they are easy to understand and they are always nicer and more polite than anyone in the U.S.

Two of our finest men, Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore., were kidnapped and murdered in Iraq by truly evil people. The Leftists wackos started no thread at TSM about it. They sure layed it on thick over Abu Gahrib and Gitmo though. Page after page of condemnation and insults at the American soldiers, military leaders, you name it. I'm sure Menchaca and Tucker would have gladly endured dog collars, fake electrical wires, and being stripped naked. I wonder how many times times the word "torture" was used by the Leftist scum in those pages. Ah, but they have nothing to say about Menchaca and Tucker. I used to start a thread each year honoring our military on Memorial day. I wouldn't bother anymore, what's the point. None of the vaunted Liberals had anything to say in those threads about the military then or now. And they didn't start any threads on their own. But they support the troops don't you know. Heck, the insurgents are just defending their homeland that we invaded, right? They are the good guys fighting the occupying American military. Nothing to say about Menchaca and Tucker? Wow.

A Nike poster of English soccer star Wayne Rooney has inspired outrage and condemnation among some dipshits in England. And in America as well I'm sure. There are three reasons for the outrage: 1) the red paint and expression on his face promotes violence and aggression, 2) the configuration of the paint, in the form of England's flag, recalls a cross, with Rooney as the crucified Jesus, and 3) the form of the cross also recalls the familiar vest/clothing of the Crusades, which is offensive to Muslims. Sweet living Jesus in a soda can, get a life people. A friend of mine was watching an England World Cup match and saw fans dressed in Crusader outfits. He immediately thought of Monty Python--I said no, that's a Crusader costume and if someone did that in America, CAIR and the ACLU would go apeshit. He said nah, it wouldn't be a big deal. This poster incident is a perfect example of the hysterical reaction to these kinds of things. And Christians don't get a free pass either--some are condemning it as offensive to God. Get a grip people.

Yeah, you're right, there is nothing to be learned from the reaction to Abu Gahrib and Gitmo and the silence over Menchaca and Tucker.