Inside the Dark Side

I try not to start blog fights with bloggers I disagree with. Yeah, I know, I've started out far too many posts with that sentence, and typically continue that with some variation of the next sentence... But every now and then somebody offends me so much that I just need to bring attention to their brazen douchebaggery, despite the fact that I am trying (rather unsuccessfully at times) at making this blog more lighthearted and fun. This time it's this Australian neocon bumsniffer who I've come across on JSF's blog. She's got a lot going against her with me from the getgo. As a Christian Zionist, she is a very strong supporter of Israel. Nothing wrong with supporting Israel on the surface, but when that support is on the frightfully rabid side and has more to do with fulfilling biblical prophecy to bring about the end of the world rather than any kind of care about peaceful coexistence, it's more than a tad unsettling. And as I've said before, if a person can't support Jews in the afterlife (for those who actually believe in such things), their support for them on Earth is a tad superficial if not kind of evil. Strike one. Then there's the whole bit about a foreigner telling me how to run my country. Yes, world leaders do it all the time to each other, but that's their job. Go throw another kangaroo on the barbie, worry about your own damn country and leave the running of America to Americans thank you very much. Strike two. Now the first two strikes are more of a minor annoyance like a gnat to be swatted away rather than being worthy of an entire post, but when this nasty little bush pig started up with the vapid Clinton-bashing on my post about Bush threatening to veto the bill that provides affordable health care to my daughter, the gloves dropped. Strike three, drongo! So, want to peer into the mind of this twisted mong? Warning: reading the tripe that this hemmie spews from her vile little mind will make you feel dirty, and it is a few minutes of your life that you will never be able to get back no matter how much you wish you could. But if you feel the need to see just how twisted the mind of a neoconservative can be, this post and comments blaming liberalism for pedophilia should be enough for any blogger with half a brain or more to point and laugh at just how ridiculous some of these people can be. Note: Aussie vulgarities were provided by the fine folks at Wiktionary.

Action Alert: Take Action NOW!

I mentioned this before. Bush is set to veto a bill that would continue to help working class parents like myself keep our children insured. Now I've got a quick and easy way for you to take action on this. As this action is deeply personal to me as a parent of a child who would be otherwise uninsured, the comments on this post would be the perfect venue for some classless foreign neocon blogger type to bitch and moan about some irrelevant Bill Clinton stuff like she did the last time I posted about this. Anyway, the following is copied straight from my email: “I mean, people have access to health care in America,” President Bush said earlier this month. “After all, you just go to an emergency room.” Tell that to the parents of 9 million uninsured children around this country. The U.S. Senate is set to vote on a $35 billion increase in funding for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Such an increase would allow 3.2 million uninsured children—the ones Bush thinks should just head to the nearest emergency room when they get sick—to become eligible for the program. Click here to tell your senators to make sure Bush can’t veto this critical funding. While threatening to kill the legislation, Bush has claimed new funding for SCHIP “opens an avenue for people to switch from private insurance to the government.” He’s wrong. These children aren’t switching from anything—they’re uninsured. To clarify for President Bush: They do not have health insurance. The Senate Finance Committee just passed the bill with an enthusiastic, bipartisan vote of 17-4. Six of the 10 Republicans on the committee supported the bill. The 10-year-old program expires Sept. 30. It’s time for the Senate to defy Bush’s veto threat and help ensure millions of low-income children get the health care coverage they desperately need. Please take a few minutes out of your day to help keep my daughter and millions of other children insured.

We Know Major Tom's a Junkie

Ever since I was old enough to see Star Wars the first time, I thought that being an astronaut would be a pretty sweet job. When I got older and realized that light sabers, blasters, droids, wookies and jumps to hyperdrive were not part of the job, and just how demanding the training would be, that dream died and I wanted to be an actor in scifi movies for a while (my pathetic stint at drama class is another story for another time). In other words, Neil Armstrong may have walked on the moon, but he was no Han Solo. In the years since I gave up on my dreams of cruising through space, blowing up death stars, having snowball fights on Hoth and eating barbecued ewoks on Endor, I still kept an interested eye on the real goings on of the much less glamorous work of non-fictional space travel. I watched the first space shuttle launch, and was torn up over both space shuttle disasters. I was thrilled by pictures from Mars and Jupiter. I've been intrigued by the idea that we now have an international space station where people live in orbit for extended periods of time. But still, I didn't really think that a NASA career was something I would be interested in. But in the last few months, the Space Shuttle has started to look like a much more fun workplace! Besides the torrid love affairs (while it may not have been specifically mentioned in this case, just think about the potential for zero-gravity sex!), apparently some astronauts have been getting their drink on. Now I don't want to come off as being socially irresponsible, but I would have to think that the only thing cooler than going up into space would be going into space with a nice buzz on. And technically, I don't think that there are any laws about operating a spacecraft under the influence. I would think that Han Solo has knocked back a few before flying the Millennium Falcon, and he's made the Kessle Run in 12 parsecs for cryin' out loud! With the sex and the booze, all that shuttle needs is a booming sound system. Is 35 too old to start astronaut training?

Groupware Solutions

There's only so much you can do with the free groupware solutions out there. Don't get me wrong, Google Calendar is great for you to share dates with a few friends, but try using that in your business to deal with all scheduling for a company. That's what I'm doing now at my job and let's just say that it's far from ideal. What a company needs is a real groupware solution to handle schedules, online collaborations, app sharing, virtual meetings and all that kind of stuff, as well as a DNS host so all of this shows up under their own domain to keep their branding and whatnot. Concentric Total Solutions offers all of this, so if you're in the market, do check them out. DISCLAIMER: This post is sponsored by Concentric Total Soulutions

Just ewwwww!

Here are two things that I never want to read in the same sentence ever again: Hillary Clinton and cleavage.

My Generic Victory Speech

This is the fourth and final post in the blogoff for breast cancer (see below). This week's word is "victory" and it once again proved to be a bit of a challenge. I've always wanted to do a victory speech for something. I thought about shooting video of myself giving one, but in order to make it good it would take a lot of post-production work which I just didn't have time for what with a job and a family and all. So here's my generic victory speech for any occasion... Thank you. Thank you. Oh, you're too kind. (more of this depending on how much applause I get) It just blows me away to think that this Pick one: Communications school dropout Fat kid from upstate New York Freak-power high school presidential candidate Z-list blogger Foul mouthed wingnut is up here on this stage being introduced by Pick one: a Kennedy Carrot Top William Shatner Stephen Hawking Ron Jeremy let alone that I Pick one: won an oscar won a bloggie won an AVN award will be your next president won a Nobel Prize When people ask me why I first got into Pick one: independent film porn blogging politics advocacy I usually tell them it was for the money. (wait for laughs to die down before continuing) But really, it's Pick one: a creative itch that I needed to scratch for the fame for the money to get chicks for the good of mankind Being chosen for this means the world to me and I will not waste this opportunity. Pick one: In the next four years In my next film In my next video In my next post In the future I promise to Pick one: fix everything that the last guy fucked up have more car chases and explosions do entirely away with dialog and plot and just get to the good stuff achieve new and exciting levels of sarcasm rid the world of starvation and disease once and for all I've got a great deal of people to thank, and I'm sure I'll forget somebody so please forgive me. I could never have done this without Choose several: My family Jesus Buddah Allah J. R. "Bob" Dobbs The Weinsteins The fine folks at Vivid Video Howard Stern The American people The global community The fine folks at Blog Explosion My crack team of consultants, publicists, spin doctors and damage control experts All the people who worked behind the scenes California's medical marijuana providers The spirit of Ghandi The spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. The spirit of Elvis Presley The Gotti family The grassroots network of activists Everyone who has ever left me a comment, even the bad ones All the interns Bono The other guys from U2 Dr. Jiggles Cosmetic Surgery Center in the San Fernando Valley Well they're about to start playing the music which means I need to cut this short. I would like to wrap this up with these words. I've paid my dues, time after time. I've done my sentence but committed no crime. And bad mistakes, I've had a few. I've had my share of sand kicked in my face, but I've come through! We are the champions, my friends. And we'll keep on fighting till the end. We are the champions. We ARE the champions. No time for losers 'cause we are the champions of the world! Thank you, Pick one: and good night. and god bless America. now let's party! we must keep up the struggle. and keep on blogging! * * * This blog may be irreverent and silly and sometimes even downright stupid, but breast cancer is some serious business and this post is part of the Blog-off for Breast Cancer. Please click the banner above to make a pledge for Courtney's 3 Day Walk. And check out the other great bloggers who are taking part in this great fundraising blog event here.

This Time it's Personal

Anyone who reads this blog knows that loathing does not even begin to describe the way I feel for the don of the Bush/Cheney Crime Family. Up until now, the reasons for my unhappiness with this miserable excuse for a president have been on principle. The things he has done have been bad for our country and our democracy, but really have not personally affected me, until now. You don't have to see Sicko to know that health care in this country is in bad shape. When we first found out that Anne was pregnant, we had to scramble to get her insured. Private insurance was out because pregnancy is definitely a pre-existing condition. Medicare was out because we made too much. Luckily for us there was a state program for medium income people who can't afford private insurance, because if that hadn't been available, our options were abortion or bankruptcy. Since we were accepted into that program, Stella became eligible for low cost insurance until she turns 18. If not for this, we could not afford to insure her at all. The federal program that funds the states low cost insurance for children is up for renewal and guess what president shit for brains says he's going to do? He's promised to veto it. Though around nine million kids still need health insurance, Bush portrayed the proposed expansion -- which would be funded by a 61-cent tax on cigarette packs -- as a trick that would let middle-class families ditch private insurers in favor of government care, ushering in a dangerous age of universal care. Yeah George, that's it. Instead of choosing between health care or food, I'm tricking the system! And I wonder who is greasing George's palms more, the tobacco lobby or the insurance lobby. This could very well lead to the first bipartisan veto override for Bush. At this point, the lame duck president has nothing to lose by screwing over children, but any member of congress who goes along with that can pretty much kiss their seats goodbye. Regardless, we need to put the pressure on, so please call your senators and representatives, especially if they are republican, and put their feet to the fire on this one. If you don't have any kids of your own, do it for Stella:

If You Have a Web Business, You Need This

Many people are doing business online, and I would say that the majority of them do not have a large business structure behind them. The biggest challenge for the small web business (besides bookkeeping - but that's a whole other story) is accepting different forms of payment. For many small web based businesses, paypal is the only game in town. But some people don't want to use paypal, and waiting for a check or money order to come in the mail and then clear is such a hassle. What you need is flexibility and secure processing. Check out the Merchant Consulting Group for answers about how you can do credit card processing, Online Checks, Gift Cards, and E-Commerce payments at competitive rates. DISCLOSURE: This post is sponsored by Merchant Consulting Group

Death of a Media Giant

While there are a wealth of print publications that cover the usual stories, there's only one brave enough to cover stories otherwise overlooked by mainstream media. Did the New York Times ever so much as offer a single column inch to the alien who has met with many US presidents and political talk show hosts? Did the Washington Post ever have a birth announcement for Bigfoot's various babies? Did the San Francisco Chronicle ever mention Bat Boy's cross country rampage? Absolutely not! Nobody covered these stories and oh so many more like the Weekly World News. The only journalist to come close is Riley Martin. This fine publication has not only informed me of these incredibly important yet overlooked news stories, but it has made waiting on otherwise excruciating long checkout lines a little more bearable. Weekly World News, the world will be a slightly dumber place without your brilliant news reportage. I guess I'll have to start getting my news from Fox now. I was incredibly sad today to find out that one of my favorite news sources is forever shutting its doors.

Great Video!

Why is it that the most fervent supporters of the war in Iraq won't put their money where their mouths are and fight the war? One brave journalist infiltrated the young republicans convention and let them explain in their own words. See some real Yellow Elephants in action:

These are my Homies!

In the month or so that I've completely sold out my blog been accepting sponsored posting opportunities on PayPerPost, the opportunities that I have taken were ones that I don't mind my sponsors. But today is the first time I'm actually excited about one: RevLeft.com leftist discussion forums! While Bill O'Reilly and the rest of the right wing spin machine wants you to think that middle of the road corporate sponsored democrats are the radical left, the folks in these forums ARE the radical left. And as my own politics have mellowed a bit over the years, I have far more in common with real leftists like these than I do with the democratic party. While I do not agree with everything that everybody across the left side of the political spectrum has to say, but it's the fact that so many different views are represented and that nobody really agrees with each other on the finer points of any of them and will debate those finer points until they're blue in the face that I find much more appealing than the way right wingers for the most part will line up behind their leaders and put on a facade of unity even when on issues that they don't agree with. DISCLOSURE: This post is sponsored by RevLeft.com

I Love Our Neoconservative Overlords!

Well, I'd like to say that George Bush has gone completely fascist on us, but that could be loosely interpreted as me trying to undermine the economy of Iraq and he has just given himself the right to seize my property with no due process for that. So I would like take this opportunity to make myself very clear that I am now 100% for this war in Iraq. Whether or not we know what the job we're supposed to do over there is, we need to get it done no matter how many of our people die. It's OK that they lied about WMD's. I have no problem with Dick Cheney's business associates and others having a blank check from our treasury to do whatever they want over there. Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame are traitors to our country and should be the first to have their property seized for daring to undermine the economy of Iraq. After them, every member of the democratic party and all anti-war groups should report to the nearest federal office building to hand over everything they own. As for me, I've got a family to support so I am now a card carrying, war supporting, Bush-loving member of the Republican Party. And I retract my previous posts insinuating that our fearless leader has his head up his ass as well as every time I have referred to his administration as the Bush/Cheney Crime Family. But seriously now, can anybody even attempt to defend this horse shit? JSF, I'm looking at you there buddy. You're one of the few republicans I can stomach, despite the fact that your insistence of backing up your positions with poor logic gets a little older with every post. Please tell us how Iraq and this war are more important than the 5th Amendment to our constitution, or denounce this president of yours and his continued assaults on the very fabric of what our country stands for. Or just blame it on Bill Clinton or left leaning blog trolls. This latest outrage comes via the very patriotic Freakgirl who loves the economy of Iraq and would never do anything to undermine it.

Wonders in Medical Science

Apparently this weekend doctors are going to try to do the impossible. They are going to attempt to find George Bush's head.

Digital Cameras

There is absolutely no arguing that digital cameras have revolutionized the way we take pictures. Sure, film photography is still an artform that will always be around, but for practical purposes, digital is where it's at. Say you're at a party and just want to take some candid pictures. Are you going to bring a nice 35mm (or a not so nice one, or even one of those craptacular disposable cameras) and load it up with expensive film, then wait for it to be developed, then scan those prints and email them? Who has the time for that anymore? With digital, you can snap away, see the pictures right then and there, get rid of the ones you don' want, and have them emailed or posted on the web within minutes. My family uses our digital camera (and digital video camera) mainly so we can share pictures of our daughter with the rest of our family who ware spread out in every direction. We'll take a few hundred pictures, upload them to flickr and then post a link on a blog. Or we'll put videos together, put them on YouTube and share those on the same blog (I'd link to it, but that's usually a no-no in a sponsored post like this). Like the old film cameras, now you can even get $10 throw away digital keychain cameras through multi-thousand dollar professional SLR models including Nikon cameras. Our digital camera is a lower-end Kodak easyshare, but someday I'd love a higher end Nikon. DISCLOSURE: This post is sponsored by Ritz Camera.

I Feel the Earth Move Under my Feet...

Actually, I felt the earth move under my ass. I thought I might have dreamed about a minor earthquake in the middle of the night, but I guess it wasn't a dream. This one was a 4.2 in the East Bay that lasted about a minute and I must have slept through most of it because I only remember being awake for a few seconds of it before looking at the clock and going to sleep. As a transplanted New Yorker, this whole earthquake business takes some serious getting used to. A few years ago there was a big quake off the coast near San Simeon a couple days before Christmas. We were celebrating with Anne's family down there and all through dinner we were feeling aftershocks. I wonder if this is ever something I'm going to be used to.

Harry Potter

Last night I got to see the new Harry Potter movie. I don't think I really need to write up a full review since there are already about a million of those floating around already, but I figured I'd share my thoughts. I remember when the first film came out and while it tried to cram in just about everything from the book, there were some nitpicky fans who complained about things that didn't make it in. As the books kept getting progressively longer, this happened more, where entire plotlines would wind up not making it into the movies. I remember reading Order of the Phoenix and wondering how they would manage to cram that whole thing into a 2 and a half hour movie, and while there were some things that I think really should have been in there, they did a really good job of it. Obviously they couldn't fit the whole Quidich story in, and it wasn't really missed though a mention of it might have helped to further illustrate the oppressive atmosphere at Hogwarts. They also didn't go into Harry's fumbling attempt at a relationship with Cho, but that wasn't a glaring omission either. While I would have loved to have seen Hagrid's story about his time with the giants, that was not important enough to the plot (DVD spinoff, perhaps?). There were other little things that I think may have helped contribute to the storytelling, but the one that really should have stayed in was Professor Trelawny's involvement with Harry's prophecy. Besides the importance to the story, it was such a waste of Emma Thompson's talents. She was one of the highlights of the third film for me. Alan Rickman was incredible as always. One of my favorite stories about him is from Kevin Smith. When they were in pre-production for Dogma, he told Jason Mewes that he better know his lines because he was going to be working with Alan Rickman and he really didn't want to look unprofessional in front of such a great English actor. Mewes was so intimidated that he learned everybody's lines. I would have loved to have seen more of him, particularly Harry's reaction to seeing him at the Order's house, but we'll be seeing plenty of him in the next movie. The girl who played Luna Lovegood was perfectly spacey and creepy. It wouldn't have taken much to give more of her backstory, but oh well. Lastly, I don't want to be one of those people who tries to find metaphors for real life events in every piece of pop culture I see, especially seeing how obnoxious that was when the right wingers had their collective meltdown over Happy Feet. And I highly doubt that there was any intention by J.K. Rowling or the filmmakers to make any commentary on world events with these books and movies. But I do think that the themes of good, evil and corruption are so universal that sometimes you can't help but make a comparison. It just goes without saying that whenever I see some big evil character on screen I tend to draw parallels to Bush or Cheney. In this case, it wasn't Voldermort who reminded me of the criminals running our country so much as the Ministry of Magic. Their refusal to believe the truth about Voldermort's return and their smearing of Harry and Dumbledore for their continued insistence of the truth is much like the way the Bush/Cheney Crime Family have dealt with certain MIA WMD's and their entire rationale for getting us into Iraq. Also, the way that they stuck their hand into Hogwards and dictated the way the children should be taught defense against the dark arts reminds me a bit of how they tend to choose religious wingnuttery over science and education whenever possible. While teaching defense against the dark arts in theory rather than practice is not quite the same as pushing abstinence only birth control in sex-ed, creation mythology in science classes, and doing everything possible to stop stem cell research, it's the attitude of politicians thinking they can do a better job than educators to educate our children that is infuriating in fantasy or reality. One can only hope that Bush and Cheney are dragged off in the woods by an angry gang of centaurs! Coming Soon: There were some pretty cool trailers before the movie. Christmas movies can be pretty hit or miss. For every Christmas Story, Bad Santa or Elf there's one with Tim Allen playing Santa or some other crap. So when they started this trailer I had my doubts until I saw that it stars Paul Giamatti as Santa and Vince Vaughn as Santa's slacker brother and it's made by the same people who did Wedding Crashers. Check out a trailer.

Breasts: A Historical Study - Blogoff Week 3

Well it's another week and time for the second to last post in this blogoff, and once again I am finding myself incredibly challenged by the word of the week. It's not because it's a hard word to write about, but because I already used my best material on the subject in last week's post. This week's word is "breasts" and I guess you could say that I've already blown my load on breasts, but that might sound a little dirty so please just forget that I wrote that. After already divulging my embarrassing story of teenage boobie fumbling, I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to expand upon this topic. Of course when all else fails, it's time to drop some serious scholarly shit down, so I present to you this historical study of breasts. The Classical Period: There are many creation myths out there that try to explain the human breast. There is obviously no question to their function. All mammals feed their children with milk that they produce. But the conundrum that has plagued philosophers throughout the ages is about their form, in particular why something with such a basic biological function would look so nice. I believe it was the lesser known Roman philosopher Brazierious Maximus who pondered "why is it that the child's drinking fount must be so damned hot looking to grown men," and then devoted the rest of his life engrossed in studies to answer that question. Unfortunately, he died of suffocation while exploring for answers deep in the cleavage of one particularly amply bosomed test subject. Despite the lack of answers and the years of wasted research, the pleasing form of the breast was celebrated in many sculptures, though the same cannot be said for arms (see study materials below). The Dark Ages: During this part of history, breasts were mostly hidden from view. In fact, many people simply forgot that they even existed until they were rediscovered during... The Renaissance: Inspired by feelings of joi de vivre by people who survived the plague, a new era was ushered in where arts and science began to flourish in Europe. During this period of rebirth, breasts and other body parts were free to be celebrated in marble and on canvas. And there was much rejoicing, until... America: Whenever something fun is going on, you can always count on religious extremists to put the kibosh on it. As the people in Europe got sick and tired of these Puritans getting all self righteous on them, they did what any somewhat free post-feudal monarchy society would do. They gave the Puritans a choice to either shut up about it or go start their own damn country if they hated the country they were in so much. To their joy and surprise, the Puritans up and left. But when the Puritans arrived in the New World, they were dismayed to see the uncovered breasts of the native population with their clothing optional society. So they did what any good religious folk would do. They gave them a choice to either cover up or die. We all know the outcome of this, and never again was a bare breast seen in public in America again until... Superbowl XXXVIII: Due to a wardrobe malfunction, all of America was exposed to Janet Jackson's bare breast, leading to a complete breakdown of society as we know it, at least according to the FCC and many republican lawmakers. And there you have it, the complete history of the breast. Despite the fact that I have thoroughly covered every conceivable bit of information on this subject, here are some supplemental study aids to prepare you for the test that will be given in the comments section of this post: An example of breasts in classical art An example of breasts in renaissance art The horrific events of the Superbowl 38 Halftime Show and the resulting fallout. And for further discussion on the topic, here's a video of two leading experts discussing the subject of breasts. Please feel free to discuss this topic in the comments, but please be mature about it. I don't want any talk of pudding cups, fun bags, juggs, udders, knockers, hooters, tits, titties, cans, breastices, breasticles, boobies, gazongas, ta tas or sweater puppies. This is supposed to be educational, dammit! * * * This blog may be irreverent and silly and sometimes even downright stupid, but breast cancer is some serious business and this post is part of the Blog-off for Breast Cancer. Please click the banner above to make a pledge for Courtney's 3 Day Walk. And check out the other great bloggers who are taking part in this great fundraising blog event here.

Oh My Goth!

I love specialty dating sites! Sure, it's interesting to sort of throw your hat in the ring and try dating different kinds of people, sometimes you want somebody who is into the same things as you, whether that be along ethnic, religious, political or other lines. For every label you can think to put on a person, you can bet there's a dating site for them. So why not have one for goth singles? Even with goth parties and concerts and bars, some people find it easier to meet others online before they meet in person, and that is why online dating is a huge and growing industry. So whether you are a gothic yourself, just particularly attracted to the scene, or like me simply fascinated by the world of specialty online dating take a look at this goth dating site. They have very advanced search features and lots of members with extensive profiles and photos. The only criticism I have of the site is that it's not black. What's up with that? Also, when searching for types of music, there's no checkbox for death rock or darkwave, but I guess those tastes go without saying on a goth dating site. So check this site out and find somebody to help paint your toes black.

Lessons on Loans

As I have mentioned in a previous sponsored post on the subject of loans, it is incredibly important to get a loan from a reputable source. Let's take the story of JT as an example. JT meets Christopher at an AA meeting and becomes Christopher's sponsor. Christopher is a member of a North Jersey organized crime family. While they help each other stay sober, JT attends a high stakes poker game with Christopher where he loses far more money than he had to play with. Now I understand that gambling with the mob is not exactly a normal circumstance, but bear with me here. So Christopher pays what JT owes and now JT owes it to Christopher. Since JT doesn't exactly have much choice in the matter, Christopher sets some very harsh conditions on this loan. The interest compounds weekly and the charge for a late payment is a severe beating. While most people don't deal with the mafia when they want a personal loan, there are some fully legal companies out there who will not give you a particularly good deal. That's why it's best to shop around and compare lenders for personal secured loans online. While you probably won't end up forced to write a schlocky screenplay for a mob-financed horror film and then ending up dead, there is the very real potential that you can wind up paying a lot more in fees and finance charges than you should. So, let's go over what we've learned today: 1) Don't do business with the mob 2) Compare lenders before borrowing money 3) Life may not be entirely like the Sopranos but there are businesses out there that will try to take more of your money than they should 4) Leave the gun. Take the canolli. DISCLOSURE: This post is sponsored by the UK Personal Loan Store

Rock!

Over the weekend I had the chance to take the family out to San Francisco's Panhandle Park for a cold and foggy afternoon of acoustic rock at the bandshell. The bandshell was built by a bunch of burningman folks entirely from recycled materials including car hoods, motherboards, plastic water bottles and redwood doors, and is open for acoustic performances through the summer. Our friends, The Country Bears of Nova Scotia, took it over on Saturday afternoon for 3 hours of great acoustic rock covers, with emphasis on the ROCK! The bandshell has really amazing acoustics and a fun time was had by all. Stella really had a blast running and dancing on the stage and playing in the mud. Here's some video of them doing some Iron Maiden tunes:

Who Dropped Out Now?

When I hear the name Gilmore, the first thing that comes to mind is Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour. Then there's some country singer guy. Then there's nothing. And after miles and miles of nothing, there's the latest 2008 Presidential Primary Dropout, Jim Gilmore. Who? Am I the only one who didn't even know this guy was in the contest? In a republican primary field where the frontrunner hasn't even announced his candidacy, where the formerly presumed frontrunner can't manage to keep his campaign staff, where there's one guy outspending the rest on advertising and the only people who know about him are still only political hacks and Mormons, and where Americans are starting to find out what New Yorkers knew for years about "America's Mayor," being an un-newsworthy mid-Atlantic governor just gets lost in the mix. Does anybody care?

Hope - Blogoff Week 2

It's week two of the blog off, and once again I find myself challenged by the given word. This week it's "hope." I don't necessarily want to discuss my own hopes, or what it means to hope, or what exactly the New Hope was that George Lucas referred to in the title of Star Wars Episode IV (it was Luke - duh). In fact, I'm not going to write about the word "hope" at all, but rather a girl named Hope, as this week's assignment made me think of her for the first time in many years. I first met Hope in 8th grade. She was a cute girl from the wrong side of the tracks, one of a whole lot of brothers and sisters and she was always in some sort of unspecified trouble. She was very friendly and seemed to have a worldly sensibility for her age. Oh yeah, and she also had the biggest pair of boobs I had ever seen and I became quite obsessed with the idea of seeing more of them. Fast forward to 10th grade. Hope had been sent off to some school for wayward girls a few towns over for a year or so and had just returned to my high school and I was very much in love. Actually, it wasn't love so much as teenage hormones whipped into a frenzy by the sight of those buxom gazongas and the the fact that she was friendly to me, but I was clearly too young and stupid know the difference. At some point I had pretty much decided that Hope was going to be my first. She was definitely no virgin, and I was pretty sure that with her help I wouldn't be one for much longer. Our first date was a donkey basketball game at the high school, jocks vs faculty riding donkeys in the gym and trying to make baskets while those of us in the front rows would try to distract the donkeys by feeding them popcorn. My mom's boyfriend at the time was this horrible guido who gave me money to buy the tickets and I was so nervous that I put the change in my pocket which he later accused me of trying to steal. I still get mad thinking about that guy, but that's a whole other story which I'll tell next week if the word winds up being "douche." Anyway... that date ended innocently enough and we made another date for the following week. Our second and final date involved me meeting her at her cousin's house where she was babysitting. The baby was in bed and I had my plan ready to spring into action: loosen things up with some of the Mid-Hudson Valley's finest cannabis and then let nature take it's wonderful course. After smoking a joint or two of the sort of horribly stale homegrown leaf that makes you choke, offering a buzz that came only from oxygen deprivation and teenage determination to get high, it was time to move into phase two of the plan. She wouldn't let me kiss her, but she did let me clumsily feel those bodacious ta-ta's of hers. My hand went into the shirt, then into the bra, and then spent a while fumbling around for an elusive nipple that I never did find. I could have probably gone in elbow deep and still not found one, in part because of my inexperience and clumsiness and in part because it was like finding a needle in a haystack. After a while I gave up, we hugged and said goodbye, and that was the closest I got to having sex for the rest of my pathetic high school existence. Despite the awkwardness, I was in heaven! After that, we remained friendly while I went back to just obsessing about that rack of hers. Not long after, Hope wound up going back to that school for wayward girls (I never did know why), but one day she showed up at our school late in senior year to say hi to everybody and to show us her new baby, Jason. I jokingly thanked her for naming her firstborn after me. Fast forward 10 years. I was just starting to date Anne (for those just joining this blog, Anne is my wife who does not particularly like it when I blog about her - this time it's for a really good cause, sweetie!) when I got an email out of the blue from Hope. She had found me on Classmates.com or something like that. We caught up a bit and decided to meet up the next time I was visiting home. I really wanted Anne to come with me because I thought it might be awkward and would have felt better with her there by my side. She probably would have come along if I had just described Hope as an old friend rather than the first girl who ever let me touch her boobs. I may have gotten slightly less stupid with women since high school, but apparently not by much. So needless to say, Anne wanted nothing to do with meeting her, and I nervously went to this reunion alone. It was good to see her but definitely a bit on the awkward side. Beyond catching up on what we had been doing for the last 10 years, we had very little in common. After some talk about old mutual friends we haven't seen in years over a couple of drinks, some bad music from the redneck dive jukebox and a very poorly played game of pool, we said our goodbyes, went our separate ways and once again lost touch. * * * This blog may be irreverent and silly and sometimes even downright stupid, but breast cancer is some serious business and this post is part of the Blog-off for Breast Cancer. Please click the banner above to make a pledge for Courtney's 3 Day Walk. And check out the other great bloggers who are taking part in this great fundraising blog event here.

Kevorkian for Surgeon General

This country needs a surgeon general who can do what needs to be done, and what needs to be done is putting this dying administration out of our national misery sooner rather than later. So what's my problem with the Bush/Cheney crime family today, you ask? Oh, just another report about what a bunch of lowlives they are. While it doesn't surprise me in the least that an administration who has repeatedly politicized science would politicize medicine, it infuriates me to hear about it. President Bush's most recent surgeon general accused the administration Tuesday of muzzling him for political reasons on hot-button health issues such as emergency contraception and abstinence-only education. Dr. Richard Carmona, the nation's 17th surgeon general, told lawmakers that all surgeons general have had to deal with politics but none more so than he. For example, he said he wasn't allowed to make a speech at the Special Olympics because it was viewed as benefiting a political opponent. However, he said was asked to speak at events designed to benefit Republican lawmakers. ``The reality is that the nation's doctor has been marginalized and relegated to a position with no independent budget, and with supervisors who are political appointees with partisan agendas,'' said Carmona, who served from 2002 to 2006. [full article] And just how do these arrogant pricks respond? Arrogantly, of course! ``It's disappointing to us if he failed to use his position to the fullest extent in advocating for policies he thought were in the best interests of the nation,'' said Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto. Once again, I challenge any of you Bush apologists to defend this bullshit without bringing up Clinton's blowjob. Science and medicine are unbiased studies of our world and bodies, based upon facts, logic and testing that holds no agenda other than discovery. So please dear Bush apologists who are reading this, please tell me why it's OK to pervert and suppress scientific studies to fit the agenda of religious extremists and big business. Why is it OK for this administration to put the good of their political base ahead of the good of our people and planet? You simply cannot defend this. It is indefensible. But I still challenge you to try because I can use a good laugh today.