For the uninitiated, here's the article that keyed this off: ( Link ). Apparently, MM's a crappy tipper despite his portrayal of himself as "defender of the everyman": 10. I just got off the plane and didn't get a chance to convert my money from Euro's 9. I left a lottery ticket with it; it worked for Nick Cage's character in that movie! 8. Halliburton stole it! 7. Too much Moo shoo, not enough pork. 6. Left all my cash in the GString of the stripper at the club; she was the only...
For the uninitiated, here's the article that keyed this off: ( Link ). Apparently, MM's a crappy tipper despite his portrayal of himself as "defender of the everyman": 10. I just got off the plane and didn't get a chance to convert my money from Euro's 9. I left a lottery ticket with it; it worked for Nick Cage's character in that movie! 8. Halliburton stole it! 7. Too much Moo shoo, not enough pork. 6. Left all my cash in the GString of the stripper at the club; she was the only...
There's a movement afoot now (call it a backlash, call it what you will) to denigrate those of us who never joined the military under the premise that we "didn't serve". I feel obligated to respond. I never wore the colors of our United States Armed Forces, but that doesn't mean I didn't serve. When I was a senior in high school, I planned to enlist in the military to pay for college. Because of the tragic death of my brother two short years prior, however, the military wanted a psychological...
In the debate on Tookie Williams, I must admit I was wrong. I was blinded by my own ethos into thinking that murder was somehow wrong, and that Scripture, which condones capital punishment for certain offenses, should be my basis for thinking so. Because, you see, I was trying to integrate religion into my politics. The death penalty should be done away with entirely. In fact, so should incarceration. Tookie Williams is nothing more than a political prisoner, imprisoned for his oppositiona...
Singrdave posted a response on a thread about Tookie Williams, the cofounder of the LA Crips who is being currently considered for clemency. Do you remember September 11, 2001? I do. I remember as the towers were burning, our nation's resolve to fight a "war on terror". It was that resolve that prompted a number of changes, some of them insipid, some of them worthwhile, but all geared to fight terror at home and abroad. We have a terrorism problem in our nation that we refuse to confront. ...
There's a movement afoot in the US Congress to provide a marriage benefit to certain inner city families of $9,000 that can be applied to starting a business or home ownership, among a few otrher limited uses. I tried to find a link, but couldn't find a link to the news article I saw 2-3 days ago on CBS News. The internet's kind of wonky today, so you'll have to excuse my citations beyond CBS news...but I digress. There are a multitude of problems with this whole movement that any reasonably ...
Imagine for a moment that you are an inventor of a revolutionary product. Once this product is on the market, it will change the way we Americans do business. Imagine further that you invested a great deal of time and money in the product, but did so knowing that the end result would more than payback your research and development. And so, with product in hand, you rush to the patent office to patent this product. Once there, you are informed that your patent will effectively expire within...
So, here's the setup, kiddies. I was skimming through the forums and noticed the 5,673rd article on evolution vs. Intelligent Design. Something in the title rattled loose a bearing that had been stuck in my head for a week (see, I get these killer blog ideas when I'm walking along, but once I get to the library, they get stuck in the ether up there somewheres and I'm lucky to get them back...but I digress). You see, evolution and intelligent design are NOT competing theories, nor should th...
California's governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is mulling clemency for Tookie Williams, the founder of LA's "Crips" street gang. Conservatives are attempting to cast this as a Mumia redux, and liberals are crying for Tookie's life to be spared. I think they're both wrong. While I believe the death penalty to be wrong, the fact is, the jurors in southern California did not. And the appellate court did not. And their opinion is more compelling than mine. Tookie has, to his credit, found a so...
Link OK, so Tom Cruise bought a sonogram machine to monitor his girlfriend, Katie Holmes' pregnancy. On first glance, this might just seem to be an overzealous future father using his enormous wealth to do what any father would do. On closer inspection, though, it reeks of hypocrisy and stupidity. First, sonograms on demand are a damn stupid idea. They use radiation in those things, Tommy boy, and it's not too wise to expose a developing fetus to a constant dose just to satisfy your ego...
A Little Background... I wrote the article on the new XBox 360 and how it represented a supply/demand economy. As I wrote it, I wrote with the media figures of a $2000 price for the XBox 360 in mind. And so, because I was bored, I decided to do a little research into what the item would cost me if I were bent on getting this for my kids for the holiday. Being a veteran eBayer, I knew what to look for. And so, as a service to those of you who consider the XBox 360 a "must have", I thought I'd ...
I recently wrote an article on the "Earth to America" piece that aired on TBS a short time ago, and was confronted by a leftist who truly felt that I should live out of a tent and off of roots and berries (I'm NOT exaggerating this, folks!). Without attacking his premise (because I believe him to be entirely sincere in wanting to help the earth's environment), I have a FAR better solution. If you pinpoint sources of pollution, I highly doubt you'll find the rural Texas panhandle to be high on...
Some years ago, about a month before the Christmas buying season, we were going through the department store with my then toddler daughter. The "Sing and Snore Ernie" was the newest toy release, and my daughter was thrilled. It would go on to become one of the big holiday toys, although not nearly as big as the "Tickle me Elmo" of the previous year. After it had grabbed its niche as the big toy of the year, but well before Christmas, I was walking through the same department store a...
As the movie "WalMart: The High Cost of Low Price" is debated and promoted on every media news source, I wanted to respond from my OWN experience with the retail giant. I was an employee there for 9 months, not long enough to be a career employee, but long enough to gain some insight into the corporation, which is a far cry more than what most WalMart critics possess. What I saw at WalMart was a business with a plan, a purpose, and a well thought out approach to what they do. One of the...
I was rereading dharma's article about writing professionally, and wanted to comment, but decided against hijacking her thread (I already left a comment prior, but didn't want to detract the emphasis on her writing career on her own blog). Anyway, I'm pretty much setting the stage for entry into my own professional writing career. Frankly, if I'm successful, I'll have the individuals on this blogsite to thank. You see, for about a year and a half, you have been my sounding board, my harshe...