Just a couple of recent editorial cartoons that I thought were amazingly accurate...



Just about says it all, doesn't it?

Then there's this...


If racism were to truly disappear, those 2 would be rendered completely obsolete -- I mean really, what else do they exist for except to stir up racial trouble?

Hello Racing Fans...

In this country, everyone is all in a dither about Dale Jr. switching cars and sponsers -- leaving the team his daddy was with for a different one. But in the rest of the world, other news is going on.

In Formula 1, team McLaren got kicked out of the championship race for spying on Ferrari. They're still allowed to race, and their drivers are allowed to keep their championship points (they're in the number 1 and 2 spots), but Ferrari will be the manufacturer winner, and their cars will have numbers 1 and 2 next year. In fact, if a McLaren car wins another race, no representative from the team (other than the driver) will be allowed on the podium. Talk about a smackdown! All because a couple of tech bigwigs for McLaren ended up with classified Ferrari documents in their possesion. Everyone involved has been fired now (of course) but the damage is done. This actually works out well for me, because while I always root for the prancing pony, I was very impressed with Hamilton's performance in his first year. So now I can root for him to win, and know that Ferrari will still win too.

On a less pleasant note, Colin McCrae (of the computerized rally racing games) was killed in a helicopter accident, along with his son and some friends.

I am hypocrite, and I won't sing songs...

Manilow boycotts ‘The View’ over Hasselbeck

Aparently Barely Manenough can no longer appear on the view as long as Elizabeth Hasselback is on the show. This is a new development, because "Manilow has appeared twice on the show in the past with Hasselbeck on the panel." So what has changed? Does it have something to do with him being "a long time friend of Rosie O’Donnell", who was all but fired from the show because of Elizabeth Hasselback? Duh. He even recorded a duet with Rosie singing Don't go Breakin ' My Heart -- it's not on the new album because its ".. a very romantic album. And having this thing come crashing in out of nowhere, the tone just didn’t feel right. " My guess is the record company went to him and said, "You aren't really planning on releasing this, are you?" Barbara and company refute what Barely says .. "the show is the one who canceled the booking because they would not allow the “Copacabana” singer to dictate who would interview him." It would be like canceling a gig on Late Night because you didn't want to be on the same stage as Paul Shafer. It's stupid, it's childish -- it's Rosie.

And he'd realize that if he was more than Barely Manenough...

Check this out...

Every so often you'll run into something really neat on the web

Like this

Pretty unique, isn't it...

And the iMadness goes on...

After dropping the budget iPhone from the lineup, and dropping the price on the big one to the newly discontinued budget model (a big thank you to you loyal kool-aid drinkers out there!) -- a new gotcha comes along.

A guy takes a trip to Europe, and is welcomed home by an $800 cell phone bill. Seems his iPhone continued to call home regularly to check for email -- all at international data roaming rates!! Apparently someone forgot the bit of code that says:

if international.data.roaming.flag = on,
do confirm.mail.check.before.racking.up.huge.cellphone.bill
endif

Real tough one, isn't it...

Guess who...

There is a group of people in this world who believe a certain way. This is nothing new of course, we all belong to groups like this -- Kiwani's, Shriner's, Harley riders, Jeff Gordon Fans -- you name it.

There is a group out there, though, that doesn't feel we should be able to believe in something they disagree with. They're right, and the rest of us are absolutely wrong -- and they want to make sure they get their way. In some parts of the world, where they control the government, they arrest people who disagree with them, torture them, and sometimes make them disappear for good. In the places where they don't control the government yet, they use it to try to silence their opponents, and restrict their rights and freedoms. They use the popular media to present their case, and ridicule the opposition. They move to get their point of view introduced into educational institutions, while suppressing those that don't agree with them.

So who is this group? Hammas? Islamic Jihad? The Shiites and Sunnis? Nope -- Atheists. They say there is no god, and try to silence anyone who believes otherwise. They were dancing in the streets when Jerry Falwell died (even hoping he was burning in hell, and extremely stupid sentiment from a group of people who don't believe in God, or heaven and hell). Christopher Hitchens leads the charge on Slate.com, blaming all the worlds problems on religion (rather than on the men hiding behind the facade of religion -- how many millions did the atheistic regime of Joseph Stalin murder?). He says the atheists are 'totally winning' -- but what are they winning? Nothing they don't already have -- what he really wants to say is that non-atheists are losing, but that would be politically incorrect.

But see, here's the thing -- I don't lose anything believing what I do. If I'm completely wrong, when I die, I die. I leave behind a rotting corpse, 2 well educated and cared for children who will have fond memories of a loving and caring father, friends who knew they could count on me to help, and a legacy of a consistent belief in a set of standards based on the life of a man I believed to be the Son of God. I lose nothing by being a God Fearing Christian. Christopher Hitchens wins a loyal following of other people who believe what he believes and the accolades that goes along with it, but when he dies he leaves nothing more than I do. Now, suppose I'm completely right -- I have a satisfactory life here on earth, and a perfect one waiting for me in heaven -- so wonderful I can't even begin to describe it here. Hitchens dies and goes to hell -- and spends eternity regretting all the other atheists he helped lead astray.

So tell me again, what are they totally winning?

Theater in the Round

I've mentioned before the fact that we have an ersatz "home theater" in our basement. I've mentioned the projector a number of times, I know that much. The sound is still pretty wimpy, just my old stereo and speakers set up on either side of the screen (no fancy surround sound yet). The other part of the setup is the big 400 disk DVD changer that both plays and stores a big chunk of the disks we own.

I have finally gotten around to filling the silly thing, and cataloging what's in it. There is the option for the changer to do that itself -- but it doesn't work very well. It's not the fault of the changer, it's just that most disks aren't properly labeled and encoded with the info for the changer to read. Sony provides the option for you to manually enter in disk titles (and even includes a PS/2 keyboard jack on the front to make entry tolerable), but in the end it's just not worth the hassle. If you take a disk out, the player forgets it's name and you have to enter it again. So instead, I've created a spreadsheet with all the names and disk numbers on it (which I can sort by name or number, or type, once all the info is entered) that I can print out and leave downstairs for easy reference. I've left space for movies I know will be coming out soon (Shrek 3, Pirates 3, Fantastic Four2, Spiderman 3, Harry Potter & TOoTP) as well as expansion space for movies I might go ahead and pick up sometime (another Veggietale, Reservoir Dogs), and slot #1 for movies not stored in the changer (Das Boot is a 2 sided disk, you have to flip it over to watch the whole thing -- and there are too many anime and TV series disk to fit in the changer with everything else).

I suppose I'll make the list available some day (the file is in Google Docs) just so nosey people can see what I watch.