OK, this one off the funny papers. In the now growing war against me (no, I'm not kidding, it's gotten pretty stupid), I have been accused of violating someone's human rights. Did I hack into their computer and edit their blogs? Did I manipulate joeuser's servers and hide them? No...I CRITICIZED them. For this, I get categorized as a "human rights" violator. Please show me any international agreement that stipulates the right to blog without criticism. It isn't there. What I canno...

OK, so here's the scenario. I'm at a discussion group of local activists. Not all of us are avowed Libertarians in the group, but there's a strong libertarian sentiment nonetheless. I am speaking as the group begins to dissolve in some petty little squabble or another, and I make the statement "we need to win the war; THEN divide the spoils". At this point, some older gentleman who's been mostly listening, pipes up "War? What war?" and beging on his own little rant (I fully expected a "...

Just over 7 years ago, I received the job that I truly thought would be my career. I was working with developmentally disabled adults in a group home setting. The following years seemed to confirm my feeling that this would become my career, as I advanced up the ladder as quickly as I could. Within a year, I was an assistant manager. Two years after that I was manager. I coauthored the Y2k disaster program for the 50 programs under our care, and authored the individual Y2k support plans fo...

For many years, my family and I lived in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. For those of you who don't know, Oshkosh is the site of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA)'s annual fly-in. Over a million people come from around the globe for the week long event, which features flight demonstrations, notable aviators, and celebrity enthusiasts of all kind (John Denver was a regular when he was alive; Chuck Yeager and Dick Rutan make the trip every year as well). It is the largest civilian airshow in t...

For this blog to make sense, I am going to have to go back a bit to a time I don't like to revisit. One of my past stepfathers (a man we'll call John Doe) was a man my mother met in a casino in Wendover, Nevada, and married in jail when he was in on a burglary charge. He was also the most sadistic man I ever met. One example of his twisted ways of doing things was when he beat me severely for leaving a coat at school (until I was bleeding rather steadily), then took us to the Great Salt La...

OK, folks. This time, I am going to post the entire article, from yahoo! news on this one. This is upsetting that such a mistake was made: Co. Pulls Toys Depicting 9-11 Attack Fri Aug 27, 2:40 PM ET Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo! MIAMI - Small toys showing an airplane flying into the World Trade Center were packed inside more than 14,000 bags of candy and sent to small groceries around the country before being recalled. AP Photo Toys With Twin Towers and Plan...

In my current bout of unemployment, I was seriously considering returning to the mine to work in a few weeks. No more. The mine has been shut down for three weeks, first because of an MSHA (mine safety & health admin) violation, now because of flooding in Death Valley, where the mine is located. The MSHA citation came because they continued to produce ore after the fans broke, meaning the only ventilation going into the mine was that which was drifting down naturally, and there was very...

*Lincoln-Douglas *Grant-Lee *Monitor-Merrimack *Sam Huff-Jim Brown *Max Baer-Jim Braddock *Shoeless Joe Jackson-Walter Johnson *Bob Feller-Mickey Mantle *Hamilton-Burr *Boris Spassky-Bobby Fischer *William Wallace-the English Army *Robert Bruce-the English Army *European swallow-African swallow *Cinque-the crew of the Amistad *Clarence Darrow-William Jennings Bryant *Babe Ruth-Dizzy Dean *Spinal Tap-The Rutles I'm sure I have many more, but thes...

I know many on joeuser think I'm a walking enigma. And I don't blame them. Many of my thoughts and ideals are seemingly contradictory until you understand how I would go about them. And knowing how I would go about them comes about only as you begin to know me as a person. So let me tell you about my five months as miner #43. I moved to this area, and work was incredibly hard to find. The exception is in Vegas, where it's just that many of the jobs are low paying. I received a job offer...

As I look back through my own blogs and the blogs of others, I thought this would be relevant to explain my position on social programs per se. I'm not against "safety nets" per se. The idea of these is to provide emergency relief for those who need it, to get them through some tough times. The problem is when these safety nets are administrated by the government. The government puts strings on the funding it provides (which is interesting, as the source of the money is the PEOPLE, not...

...I would like to see a day where there's more peace than war. While I'm not naive enough to think we would ever achieve total world peace, I'd like to see us at least make a noble attempt... ...I would like to see a day of equal opportunity, not necessarily equality. While we are all created equal, some people do a better job than others in being stewards of what they are given, and should be adequately rewarded... ...I would like to see a day when intelligent, thoughtful discussion ...

DISCLAIMER: Please note that my title reads "some of the media". I don't wish to disparage the responsible members of this profession. The Kobe Bryant case has really brought out a pet peeve of mine. Because the name of the accuser has been released on some separate occasions, it is information that I found months ago, and is readily available to anyone willing to do the work to find it. However, I have had no problem in not releasing the name in my posts or discussion of the case because,...

OK, So in my quest for gainful employment I am not turning anything down, and there was a listing for a handyman/security at one of the local brothels. I decided to go check it out. While there, I was invited to take a tour of the facilities with one of the ladies. I was very impressed with a rather high class facility...it was every bit as nice as the finer hotels in Vegas (although one certainly pays for the use of the facilities...Private bungalows with the ladies rent out starting a...

OK, latest news in the Gideon search for a job saga is that I received a callback from the brothel and am going down there to interview tonight. I also have a job interview tomorrow that I have about a 95% certainty to nail, but I think working for a brothel could be a very interesting career to add to my resume. I'll let you guys know how it goes after the interview.