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Posted on June 26th, 2008 by Mark.
Categories: Just Dumb, My Life.
When you get to 20,000 words on a project and realize that represents 25% or less of the total sum of what you’re going to be writing… you need to amp up the funny… and fast.
Here’s a little something that makes me laugh every time:
This is another good one:
Argh… back to the stone.
Posted on June 23rd, 2008 by Mark.
Categories: Just Dumb, My Life.
Sometimes you’ll do almost anything to avoid writing. You hit a snag and it just seems insurmountable. For the last couple of days I’ve been in a kind of writing hell. What did I do in order to escape it? I made for a writing site that I frequent and ended up wasting a lot of time posting about politics, etc. You’d think that it might be a good outlet, and for a while it was. Lots of intelligent people discussing the issues and debating the merits. So what happened? Some tool equated the conservative movement and republicans with Holocaust Deniers. Yeah it’s pretty unbelievable, but it got worse. This person then went on to imply that Cindy McCain (the mother of a black child) is a racist in some awful supposed satire that has her not only fixing the smiles of Vietnamese kids but also the color of their eyes (apparently brown is offensive). It was disgusting… yet the poster is embraced as a fine addition to the community. If this is liberalism, you can guess why I finally said enough is enough and gave up my crusade against the Republican Party. The GOP is a disgrace, but the Democrats and their ilk have degraded into some kind of a radical fringe group loaded down with nutcases. Can you imagine if somebody put big lips and afros on children that Michelle Obama works with? Needless to say, it was time to hit the road… the best part though… I got banned for calling this person out. I must have been doing something right considering what garners praise at that site.
Anyway, I’m back to writing this morning and it’s going well. When I get this sucker done and published, I’ll have to go back to that site and thank them… for all the wrong reasons.
*Meh*, just another day. Be strong and fight the good fight.
Posted on June 19th, 2008 by Mark.
Categories: My Life.
I get this question a lot? “Dude, I love the design of your blog, where did you get it?” The fact of the matter is that the theme is pretty much a modified version of a theme that was readily available to anybody that wanted it. Sure the wife unit changed it up, added some spiffy images and otherwise personalized it to my tastes… but there are tons of sites that offer ready to order themes that are equally as attractive. One place you can look for such themes is premiumthemes.net, they have a great selection to choose from and customization to fit your needs is not a terribly daunting task. You don’t need to copy my style, you can get one of your own… one that’s likely better than this one and more tailored to what’s important to you.
So STOP asking me about my theme… and go get one of your own! *snicker*
Posted on June 4th, 2008 by Mark.
Categories: Politics.
All of a sudden Barack Obama is all butched up on Iran. Why? Could it be Florida? Probably. If he wants any shot at Florida he needs to at least make an effort to appear tough on Iran and Cuba. So what does he do, he decides to modify his message. Is it a flip-flop? Yeah. Will anybody in the media call it that? No.
Before: “Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don’t pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us,” Obama said.
After: “There’s no greater threat to Israel or to the peace and stability of the region than Iran,” he told the powerful pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Council (AIPAC). “The danger from Iran is grave and real and my goal will be to eliminate this threat,” he said, adding loudly to add emphasis that he would “everything” to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Anybody that is remotely concerned about the security and welfare of Israel should not be BAMBOOZLED or HOODWINKED by this guy. He’s polishing the rhetoric but his gut was exposed in the beginning. He has always believed that negotiations could stifle Ahmadinejad and Iran’s ambitions and he is wrong. How anybody can take this guy seriously on Iran is beyond me.
He measured the threat posed by a country by the size of the land mass it occupies! This is the brilliance that will be occupying the White House if Obama should be elected? Unbelievable, and yet nobody in the media seems the slightest bit concerned.
Posted on May 29th, 2008 by Mark.
Categories: Editorials, Politics.
What? Barry has been considering a trip to Iraq since late last year? Really? I don’t think so. It seems that John McCain has managed to guilt Barack Obama into visiting a post surge Iraq. You would think that Barry would have wanted to have seen first hand what it was that he was commenting on. I guess he was hopeful that he had a clue and that things hadn’t changed since his last visit (which I think was back in early 2006… but I could be wrong). Barry decided that going with McCain would have been a “stunt”… uh huh.
“I think that if I’m going to Iraq, then I’m there to talk to troops and talk to commanders,” he said in the interview. “I’m not there to try to score political points or perform. The work they’re doing there is too important.”
The work they’re doing there is so important? So important that he uses words like “complete failure” to describe it? He further added back in August of 2007…
“What I had been clear about, I think, even before the surge started was that if we put an additional 20,000 or 30,000 American troops in Baghdad that it’s going to have an impact,” Mr. Obama said. “They are doing an outstanding job in carrying out their military operations. The question has always been, What then?”
Yes Barry, what then? According to Obama, what then is “withdraw” or as McCain has said, “surrender”. I guess I should just be happy that this guy is going to go and get schooled on matters which he has incessantly critiqued without bothering to witness for himself. One would have thought he would have gotten himself up to speed with a visit to the region before he went shooting from the hip. He has made all kinds of absolute statements about Iraq without personal knowledge. I guess I’m with McCain in thinking, “it’s long overdue.”
Posted on May 29th, 2008 by Mark.
Categories: Editorials, Politics.
Nancy Pelosi says that if the Democratic nomination fight is not settled before the convention, and the delegates for Florida and Michigan have not been seated by late June, she will step in. Excuse me? This is what I love about the Democrats and why it is that eventhough I have loathed the abuses of the Bush Administration, siding with these maniacs became too much of a chore to continue. These are the people that want processes to run ad nauseum when it comes to what it is that they want… and then on the other hand, if it’s not convenient to the cause they want things to “go away”. The Democratic mantra when it comes to Hillary Clinton has become nothing more than those two, succinct, words. Nevermind that the electorate doesn’t seem to have made up its mind. Nevermind that Barack Obama cannot seem to win this on his own. Rather than asking Hillary to go away, why not tell Barry to “WIN THIS”? Instead of wondering why Hillary isn’t quitting, I think Madame Speaker should consider why it is that eventhough Obama’s opponent has been declared DOA by the media she continues to WIN.
San Francisco — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she will step in if necessary to make sure the presidential nomination fight between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama does not reach the Democratic National Convention - though she believes it could be resolved as early as next week.
Pelosi predicted Wednesday that a presidential nominee will emerge in the week after the final Democratic primaries on June 3, but she said “I will step in” if there is no resolution by late June regarding the seating of delegates from Florida and Michigan, the two states that defied party rules by holding early primaries.
“Because we cannot take this fight to the convention,” she said. “It must be over before then.”
I’m sorry, does Nancy Pelosi have some ability to “select” the nominee? Isn’t she a member of the party that runs around suggesting that the Supreme Court selected the president in 2000? Now she’s going to “step in” and do what? Demand that the DNC ignore procedure (should the process drag on) and deal with the situation? Very interesting. You know it’s remarkable how holier than thou the Democrats were after 2000. The Republicans stopped the process! They denied people their voice. Now that the Dems have an opportunity to show how it should have been done, we see that they are more backwards than the Republicans ever were. Super Delegates? What are they but a means to consolidate power and to overrule the will of the people? This would be galling if it wasn’t so darn funny!
Posted on May 24th, 2008 by Mark.
Categories: Editorials, News, Politics.
Hillary Clinton brought up Robert Kennedy and her husband Bill as a means to illustrate that primaries have gone into June in previous contests. What happens? She gets crucified by the media and the left for daring to mention the man’s name and worse… it is intimated that she meant to suggest Obama could be assassinated! WHAT? Are these people mad? The Dems and the left have finally managed to jump the shark. These people are in hysterics over a harmless comment. A comment that Hillary had made previously, but that had been ignored. Why the mania now? They’re looking for ANYTHING in order that they can be rid of her. If Obama cannot seal this deal, by God, they will! It’s absolutely disgusting.
Meanwhile, as they engage in this cannabalism John McCain’s pastor issues, and medical records get moved to the back burner along with Cindy’s tax returns. Could John McCain have planned any of this better if he had tried? He should be sending Hillary roses and he should send somebody over to wax Barry’s car! These people are imbeciles. Can the Democrats be trusted to run this country when their primary is a never ending soap opera? The Obama people talk about hope and change, when they engage in the same old politics. If they aren’t painting Bill as a racist for taking Barack to task on his war funding, they’re calling Hillary an advocate for MURDER because she mentioned that RFK was still engaged in the primary when he was shot. Unreal.
Hey Dems, keep doing us all a favor by doing yourselves in like this. It is a far better thing to see you knock each other off as you fumble towards November, rather than making this nation a sacrifice to your stupidity. John McCain is painted as irrational and angry… while the hysterical and the manic are ignored within the ranks of the left. If this primary were a nighttime soap it would have been cancelled… come November I hope that this ridiculous show is but a bad memory!
Posted on May 23rd, 2008 by Mark.
Categories: Politics.
Nobody is going to deny that John Hagee and Rod Parsley are a couple of moronic, huckster, zealots. These two guys are the worst of the Christian faith. They are opportunists and fear mongers of the lowliest sort. They cloak themselves in their perverted interpretations of God’s word. For my part there are few things that dwell on the face of this earth that I hold in less regard, so for me, John McCain’s pandering to the likes of them has always been distasteful. That said however, it has also been understandable. The man needs the evangelical set to vote for him if he is to have any chance of success come November. It’s the underbelly of politics. It’s the reality of his situation.
Now comes the media. They’ve been out there all morning making all kinds of correlations between Hagee and Jeremiah Wright. Harold Ford, Jr. the former Congressman and now it seems full time MSNBC contributor, went so far as to say that Hagee is to McCain what Wright is to Obama and because of that, McCain had better beg off on his criticism of Wright. WHAT? I’m sorry but the American people are capable of discerning between sucking up for a vote and sitting in some maniac’s church for twenty years. To draw any kind of a similarity is a reach, but right there, nodding along was Obama cheerleader Mika Brzezinski. Obama’s self-proclaimed spiritual mentor and apparent daddy figure Jeremiah Wright has been relegated to just some guy while Hagee and Parsley have been elevated from endorsers to spiritual advisors. The whole thing would be laughable if it weren’t so dangerous and it didn’t matter so much, especially in the world in which we live.
Barack Obama did not have some passing affiliation with Jeremiah Wright. The two men became symbiotic. Obama borrowed the title of one of Wright’s sermons and used it as a title for one of his books. Pastors Hagee and Parsley are heads of churches that have memberships that John McCain would like to see turn out and vote for him. Are people seeing the difference? John McCain has come out and summarily denounced the comments of Hagee, where Obama lamented and made excuses… going so far as to offer up his own grandmother as a racist before acknowledging that Wright was one! Please.
Barack Obama seems to have put himself in close proximity to a lot of people that have a real loathing for America. If the GOP failed to bring that to the fore, they would be doing not only themselves a disservice, but the country as well. I hope the Democrats throw Hagee and Parsley in McCain’s face all day long. The comparisons are flimsy and just illustrate the lengths to which they will distort the reality of the situation. The Democrats can go after Hagee for his comments about Hitler and Catholics. They can go after Parsley for his anti-Islam rants (that I bet a great many Americans will actually end up embracing). They can try to shovel as much dirt over Wright as they want. The facts are, what they are… Barack Obama has been consorting with America hating people and even married one. There is no begging off of that.
Posted on May 23rd, 2008 by Mark.
Categories: Editorials, News, Politics.
Alright, so McCain is currently courting three potential running mates. They are Governor Crist of Florida, Governor Jindal of Louisiana and Mitt Romney the former Governor of Massachusetts and presidential candidate. What I find amazing about the liberal analysis when it comes to these Veep candidates is how Crist and Jindal are colored as “green”. It seems of the three that Romney is the only one that has the experience necessary to make him a seriously viable option. Excuse me? Crist has been a force in Florida politics for a long, long, time. He’s held many high ranking, front and center posts within the state government, including Attorney General. Are these people serious?
I wonder if the talking heads on MSNBC (so wholly behind Obama as to be stomach churning) have bothered to consider how the argument applies to their presidential candidate. It seems nobody really carries on too much about this freshman Senator who has never really held any kind of office that required leadership skills. Sure they pile right onboard with his populist rhetoric, but they don’t actually analyze it. This is what makes Obama such a danger. Nobody is bothering to look at the big picture. They see holes in the qualifications for McCain’s veep choices that they fail to see in a man that is running for the highest office in the land. A veep can learn on the job, a president had better darn well know what he’s doing by the time he gets in there.
I know somebody will inevitably say, “Bush had no experience!” and to that I say… “Thanks for making my point!” Hypocrisy… it’s all over the cable news nets, all over the network news and it permeates print media. People are so desirous of change that they’ve abandoned critical thought in the pursuit. How can the fourth estate condemn restrictions applied through government and then so willingly tie their own minds into knots?
Posted on May 22nd, 2008 by Mark.
Categories: Editorials, News.
There are two stories about oil prices today and both of them are in direct conflict with one another. On one hand, an energy advisor is touting $12 to $15 a gallon prices as inevitable, on the other increasing supplies and decreasing demand may signal a downturn.
Robert Hirsch, Management Information Services Senior Energy Advisor, gave a dire warning about the potential future of gas prices on CNBC’s May 20 “Squawk Box”. He told host Becky Quick there was no single thing that would solve the problem, due to the enormity of the problem. “The prices that we’re paying at the pump today are, I think, going to be ‘the good old days,’ because others who watch this very closely forecast that we’re going to be hitting $12 and $15 per gallon,” Hirsch said. “And then, after that, when oil – world oil production goes into decline, we’re going to talk about rationing. In other words, not only are we going to be paying high prices and have considerable economic problems, but in addition to that, we’re not going to be able to get the fuel when we want it.”
Ah, nothing like optimism. If you’re currently under the stress of this economic downturn, guys like this make you want to jump off of a bridge. But wait, maybe he’s wrong!
The perfect storm that has swept oil prices to $132 a barrel may subside over the coming months as rising crude supply from unexpected corners of the world finally comes on stream, just as the global economic downturn begins to bite.
The forces behind the meteoric price rise this spring are slowly receding. Nigeria has boosted output by 200,000 barrels a day (BPD) this month, making up most of the shortfall caused by rebel attacks on pipelines in April.
The Geneva consultancy PetroLogistics says Iraq has added 300,000 bpd to a total of 2.57m as security is beefed up in the northern Kirkuk region.
“There is a strong rebound in supply,” said the group’s president Conrad Gerber.
Saudi Arabia is adding 300,000 bpd to the market in response to a personal plea from President George Bush, and to placate angry Democrats on Capitol Hill - even though Riyadh insists that there are abundant supplies for sale.
Who’s right? How the heck should I know? All I know is that I’m taking control of the facet of the problem that I do have some control over… CONSUMPTION. We all need to do what we can to lower our usage. All of the well intended “gas holidays” that you email off to your friends won’t matter worth a lick if there is no reduction in the barrels per day, that we use. It will only be a reduction in usage that will actually make a difference when it comes to prices. I’m doing a lot less driving. I’m combining my trips as best as I can. When I do drive, I am driving at a slower rate of speed. Whatever I can do to lessen my usage. It’s not about looking for the world to change, it’s about taking charge of what you yourself have the power to change. The less we use the better for all of us… until we either develop alternatives or start producing more ourselves, this is just the way things will have to be.