My least favorite legislative branch of the government, the Supreme Court of the United States, decided yesterday that the beef industry could continue charging all beef ranchers in the US a tax per head of cattle to pay for beef industry advertising. Though the tax is a minimal $1 a head, you cannot professionally raise cattle in America without paying it. Their decision is, interestingly enough, almost a complete reversal of their support of the right to work laws in various states, which l...
I've seen more than a few invitations to join Greenzap. While I have considered it (hey, even paypal paid you to join when they started up!), I also have to think back over my time online. There was a time when I was determined to make a living off of my online time. Paid email, pay to surf, pay per click, you name it, I did it. While I did make money off of a minority of those companies, the majority were scams. Either the payout limit was so high that you could never hope to reach it at the...
Got the inspiration for this off of serenity's blog: Fly a plane solo across the country Parachute into the Grand Canyon Put together a really BAD band for a "battle of bands" competition, but have a lot of "seeds" in the audience to talk us up and scream loudly when we're playing. Make up a faux celebrity name (complete with webpage) and "crash" a high roller's nightclub with full entourage Whap Ryan Seacrest with a Nerf Bat Whap whoever put his star on the Hollywood walk of fame with...
Got the inspiration for this off of serenity's blog: Fly a plane solo across the country Parachute into the Grand Canyon Put together a really BAD band for a "battle of bands" competition, but have a lot of "seeds" in the audience to talk us up and scream loudly when we're playing. Make up a faux celebrity name (complete with webpage) and "crash" a high roller's nightclub with full entourage Whap Ryan Seacrest with a Nerf Bat Whap whoever put his star on the Hollywood walk of fame with...
I have often marvelled at the "news" media's tendency to "break" stories that most people "in the know" have known for years. A wonderful example of this is the trans fat acid "scoop" of a few years back, a "scoop" that any of us who have read Andrew Weil's works were aware of years earlier. The newest example of this is the "news" that smoking (and secondhand smoking) can affect fertility. The fact that smoking affects fertility has been bantered about for most of my lifetime (though years a...
"I'd like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony" "Now I've got a hammer/and I've got a bell/and I've got a song to sing/all over this land/it's the hammer of justice/it's the bell of freedom/it's a song about love between my brothers and sisters/all over this land" "Imagine all the people/living lives in peace/you may say I'm a dreamer/but I'm not the only one/I hope someday you'll join us/and the world will live as one". A long time ago, liberals were presented to us as ...
Well, the defense in the Michael Jackson trial has rested. And Michael didn't take the stand in his own defense. While I see some wisdom in this approach (after all, when he starts defending sleeping with boys on cross examination, he'd probably be toast), I have to wonder if it will help or hurt him once the case is handed over to the jury. As far as I'm concerned, the prosecution in this case didn't prove their case. As bakerstreet pointed out on his blog, the prosecution's argument went af...
At first, when I heard about Newsweek's bogus story about guards flushing the Qu'Ran to get information from detainees, I honestly wondered what the big deal was even if the story were true. Personally, I know of nobody who would get pissed to the point of rioting if the bible were flushed. Ironically enough, the Protestant reformation was actually FUNDED by bible burners, who bought every copy of the bible they could in order to burn them. The proceeds were put into the purchase of more bibles....
Well, I seem to be on the downside of a rather virulent illness that's seen me shed over 10 pounds in 2 days' time. What worried me about the whole thing wasn't the explosive diarrhea (shades of South Park WERE going through my head, though), but the extremely stiff neck. I could barely move my head, and was starting to fear something horrible like meningitis or Lyme disease (I picked a deer tick off my friend's dog the other day, so I know there are some in the area). The unusual part of thi...
Well, I hate to do a "spinoff" thread, but being blacklisted by the blogger because I didn't devote my blog to trashing LW for reporting death threats, and dared question his omniscience, I have no choice in the matter. There was a recent article posted questioning whether the BRAC closings are politically motivated. The numbers were compelling on the surface, showing a large net loss of military personnel in "blue" states and a large net gain in red states. Not knowing much about the proc...
Lately anyone who hasn't been living in a cave in the Tora Bora mountains has heard about enough on the dems' threat to filibuster Bush's court nominees and the GOP threat to vote to eliminate the filibuster. But most people don't seem to know, or care, why this matters. You see, if politicians of either stripe have proven anything, it is the ability to prattle on endlessly about nothing. A few hours with CSpan will confirm this fact. Does any of us want or need to hear Ted Kennedy go on for ...
Well, the Texas legislature, for bad or good, decided to put the constitutional amendment effectively banning gay marriage on the November ballot. So it's going to be "crunch time" for gay rights advocates wanting to insure that this piece of legislation doesn't pass. They have my vote, but I am writing this article to give them a couple of pointers in preparing their campaign. First, don't make this an issue about your lifestyle. If you do, you will lose. It's that simple. The majority ...
The title statement was a comment on one of my threads about atheism and science. And while it was a true statement, it bears mentioning that the same could be said of the atheistic position. Indeed, it is my contention that, absent faith of some sort, the only intellectually defensible theological position is agnosticism. Atheism is as absolutist a position as is any religious dogma, and its defenders should be subject to the same standard of proof as Christians, Muslims, Jews, you name it. ...
Well, Mary Kay LeTourneau and her former student are officially married. Tabloid TV will be bringing us the nuptials with pictures of the cooing loving couple heading off to their honeymoon. But tabloid TV won't address why our society's double standard would (rightly, in my opinion) condemn a 25 year old man from having sex with a 13 year old girl and fathering two children with her to a lifetime of sexual offender registry and a gaggle of protestors outside his house demanding that he move ...
OK. So one of the news shows did a story on Jesus' resurrection last night. Another has an upcoming show about end times. The miniseries "Revelations" follows the Arnie Schwarzennegger "End of Days" and the schmaltzy pair of Tim Lahaye movies (who, in a related vein, has detailed the tribulation period down to the AntiChrist's every drink of water for those of us who would rather rely on fiction than an insightful study of scripture for our beliefs), and every two bit televengelist is coming out...