Saturday, October 31, 2009

Daddy gots a new laptop


Actually both of us do. I was getting pissed at the boggy performance I'd been getting lately from Windoze Vista on my Dell Inspiron 1501, and Mrs. Steve wanted to throw her laptop against the wall on a daily basis (a 4 year old Dell B130).

Today we both received bright & shiny new Dell Inspiron 1750's. Hers is pink, with a donation for breast cancer research, and mine is ice blue. The 17" HiDef screens are a trip; I'm not used to such a big screen on a notebook. I just have to transfer about 150GB of files from my external drive (though I'll likely just store the excess on the external for now & transfer the important stuff...)

The biggest thing that I have to get used to now is that I'm running Windows 7. Pretty spiffy so far. Daddy likes.....any of my regulars out there running W7 too?

Hope to get some new material up & posted soon, guys. Thanks for staying subscribed!

Sunday, October 25, 2009

"I can't find nothin' on the radio..."



"Hey...I can't find nothin' on the radio..."---"Radio Song" by REM, 1989

As I am wont to do every couple of months or so, I have taken another foray into that putrid dumpster of so-called entertainment known as Top-40 Music. At times I wonder why I do this to myself, why I torture myself with this audio misery. I think I do it on occasion, this self-flagellation, to remind myself of why I don’t listen to Top 40 radio and instead still cleave to what few new alternative bands I can stand and to my trusty stable of standby bands that I grew up on.

We kinda got a mixed bag this time around, kids.

Crap Song Of The Week
Jay-Z featuring Rihanna and Kanye West—"Run This Town"
Kill me now. First Jay guests on Rihanna’s “Umbrella” a couple years ago, and now Rihanna returns the favor, except she’s guesting everywhere these days and is in danger of overexposure. And Kanye, that giant ass, is the Media Whore King of Overexposure and adds really lame cheese-rap to every third song played on the radio these days, like it’s Step 4 of the Formula For A Hit or something. A couple years ago it was Akon and T-Pain, and before that it was Ludacris. Today if it isn’t Lil’ Wayne it’s Kanye, who I think just shows up at random studios and forces his way into the vocal booth like he expects everyone to want his vocals. And the rhymes he lays down as of late truly are craptastic, including these. Then again, Jay-Z’s own rap in this song is so stilted and weak that it makes me wonder how he got huge in the first place.

Flo-Rida, featuring NeYo—"Be On You"
I’ve come to the determination that Flo-Rida can’t do a song without someone else, as every single he’s released thus far has had featured vocals from some guest or other. I can’t take this song seriously, because the sugary chorus sounds to me like he’s singing, “I wanna pee on you…I wanna pee on you.” Otherwise, utterly forgettable.

3OH!3 with Katy Perry—"Starstrukk"
I like the verses of the song, but the semi-falsetto chorus grates on my nerves. These guys are almost trying too hard to be snarky bad boys and come off like a boy-band version of The Bloodhound Gang. I guess having Katy Perry on board for the radio remix adds some street-cred or something.

Priscilla Renea –"Dollhouse"
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCOnX40rf8Q
Acoustic video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEVHtR6mUKw
Y’know, at first listen I thought this was throwaway bubblegum, but it’s really catchy and clever pop. I enclosed the video links because the official video is just well done with the effects, without the usual overdone tawdry crap associated with today’s vapid vids. The acoustic clip is there to prove that this young lady can actually sing, and sounds remarkably the same live as she does on CD.

Ke$ha—"Tik Tok"
And then there’s Ke$ha…suburban white girl sugarcoated Bambi-rap from a Taylor Swift lookalike. She’s so white she makes me look thugnificent. Sadly, it’s kinda catchy, like H1N1, and affects kids at about the same rate. And if she sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because she guested on a recent Flo-Rida song, “You Spin My Head Right Round”.

Owl City—"Fireflies"
I was wondering when Emo music was gonna meet synthpop and create Electropussy. It reminds me a little of “Pure” by the Lightning Seeds back in 1990, without the stolen riff from New Order in it. There isn’t a single ounce of testosterone to be found anywhere in the entire 4 minutes and 8 seconds of this syrupy eunuch-fest. I checked a couple other Owl City songs (Sunburn and Ocean Eyes) just to see if they were all basically emasculating, and yes, it’s all pretty much an empty scrotum and enough glucose overload to induce Type 2 diabetes. Sample lyrics: “I get a thousand hugs from ten thousand lightning bugs…” I’m serious.

Black Eyed Peas—"Meet Me Halfway"
Another winner from the Peas. I am really quite impressed by this new album of theirs. Sadly, though, I’ll be thoroughly sick of this song in about 2 or three weeks, the same way I got sick of “Boom Boom Pow” and “I Gotta Feeling” after hearing them every 23 minutes on 6 stations at once.

Miley Cyrus--"Party In The USA"
Isn’t this the song that Little Miss Thing pole-danced to on the Disney Channel? And is it me, or does she sound even more nasal than usual here?

Lady GaGa—"Bad Romance"
Interesting that GaGa should release a new single before I managed to get 100% sick of the previous single, Paparazzi, notable unto itself for showing that she can actually sing melodically and not just emit forth dance tracks with gibberish lyrics. This newest song goes back to the original format & formula though of borderline nonsensical words laid over really fat groves. Two weeks from now I’ll want to stab myself in the eye with a shrimp fork every time I hear it.

Jason DeRula—"Whatcha’ Say"
Step One: Sample a fifteen-second clip of “Hide and Seek” by Imogen Heap.
Step Two: Get a kid who sounds like a knock-off of R. Kelly meets Usher.
Step Three: Have kid sing a couple verses through a box fan, add back beats/samples.
Step Four: Play on radio until vomiting is induced.

Jay Sean—"Down"
Another inescapable track that’s on 6 stations simultaneously 400 times a day. It was catchy enough the first couple times, and then it quickly became unlistenable. Some of that could be due to the warbly vocoder effects in the chorus, kinda like singing…through….a…box…fan…Hey, I detect a pattern here. But hey, we’ve got guest vocals from Lil’ Wayne. Holla!



Sadly, I really don’t have much that I can give you guys this time around as an alternative to the SuckFest on the radio. One of my current favorite bands, Shiny Toy Guns, has covered a couple of 80’s classics for the latest round of Lincoln commercials. They’re the band behind the new versions of “Major Tom (Coming Home)”, originally done by Peter Schilling, and “Burning For You”, originally from Blue Oyster Cult. Both are available out there as downloads.

And a re-issue is coming this week, at least in Europe (the USA has to wait awhile longer) with the 21st Anniversary Edition of Erasure’s 1988 album “The Innocents”. This was a great album, spawning the two megahits “Chains of Love” and “A Little Respect”. They put out a revamped version of the track “Phantom Bride” as a single to coincide with the release, as many fans had always wondered why that track wasn’t a single back in 1988. There just wasn’t enough time, though, to release it back then, as there’d already been “Ship of Fools” in addition to the other two singles already, and at the end of 1988 they had the “Crackers International” EP ready for Christmas release with the epic single “Stop!”, and within a few months the next single & album were out.

As an aside, Erasure just started working on yet another new album of material to come out either in late 2010 or early 2011. I can’t wait!


Erasure are Vince Clarke and Andy Bell

Political Burnout


Ugh.

Once again I find myself burned out on politics. If it seems that as of late I haven't been posting much new material or been making the rounds and commenting on other folks' blogs, it's because I'm mentally fried. For the past 2 or 3 weeks everyone's been doing nothing but writing about politics and Obama and the Left; it became so redundant that I just stopped reading.

It's not a diss to the writing skills of my fellow bloggers, believe me. I'm just burnt out on the subject matter. Admit it; the Net is saturated. Yes, politics is important and yes our current administration is a disaster, but I need the dead horse to grow some meat on the bones again before I start flogging it all back off.

Thusly, I had to take a few days off from the Blogosphere. I really haven't been checking in with the blogs I follow, or commenting. I even went & re-posted a couple of my older posts from yesteryear to keep from writing about politics.

Fear not, friends. The usual snark & venom will return soon enough.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

A cynical look at medical research



By nature, I am a sarcastic and somewhat distrustful cynic.

As horrible as it may make me sound, I can't help sometimes but wonder if this current H1N1/Swine Flu scare wasn't contrived as a scam to get the nation under governmental control with a mock pandemic so that we'd all look to the kind & benevolent hand of Uncle Sugar to save us. Sure, they released just enough virus into the cities to kill off enough people to make it believable without getting so outta control that it killed us all off.

Plus, a pandemic makes a great cover; it distracts the populace while you do other, more nefarious and darker things, like subverting democracy into socialism.

So I looked back into my archives and found something I wrote very, very early in my bloggery and decided to share it again, as I really don't think a single damned person read it when I first wrote it in 2005....
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I’m sure you’ve seen the commercials by now; the ones that advertise some new wonder drug that will make your life so much better. What amuses me is that most of these commercials don’t even tell you what malady this prescription treats. Note that I said TREAT and not CURE. We don’t cure anything anymore. We merely treat, but I’ll get to that later.

These wonderfully artsy commercials and print ads, with pastel colors and animation galore, are so entrancing that you almost wish you had whatever disease it treats just so you can be the first on your block to be taking the drug. And then some tiny little voice comes on at a million miles an hour and whispers about the side effects, hoping you won’t hear them.

Ah, yes, the Side Effects. Or, as they call them,”Certain Side Effects”. They say them so fast as an obligatory legal disclaimer that you almost miss them. But once you hear what these effects are, you begin to wonder if the treatment isn’t actually worse than the disease. No, thanks, I’ll take the heartburn. A little acid in my stomach has to be better than nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and insomnia.

Here’s a little REALITY in advertising:
Overweight? Underweight? Tired? Can’t Sleep? In pain? Feeling too peppy?
Try new DAMITOL!!! Made from a special all-natural sucrose polymer, DAMITOL may not be for everyone. Consult your doctor. Do not take DAMITOL if you are pregnant, nursing, may become pregnant, have ever been pregnant, ever thought about being pregnant, are the product of a pregnancy, or know someone who has ever been, will be, or thought about being pregnant. In tests, certain side effects occurred such as abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, rectal bleeding, pus-like discharge from the eyes, spontaneous abortions, and certain sexual side effects such as festering sores comparable to genital warts and an inability to achieve orgasm ever again. Discontinue use if symptoms persist. DAMITOL…when you absolutely have to take SOMETHING…


Yeah, the treatment is worse than the disease, because as I said earlier, we don’t CURE things anymore. The last disease we cured was Polio, in the 1940’s. We can send a man to the moon (although not in the last 30 years), we can make hand-held jukeboxes to hold 10,000 downloaded bootleg songs, we have cellular phones with email and cameras, we can pause and rewind live television, and we can pay for groceries with a thumbprint, but with all the billions of dollars in research that goes on daily, the last thing mankind cured was polio?

That’s because there’s no money in cures. All the money is in research and sexy drug treatments. They probably found a cure for cancer in 1960 while dreaming up a new biological warfare agent to kill communism but held onto the secret formula.

Every year,Jerry Lewis raises tens of millions of dollars for Muscular Dystrophy. Go look up the telethon on Wikipedia & see the tote board results, and then factor in the other worldwide MDA telethons....still no cure. Billions and billions in cancer research, and hundreds of products with a pink ribbon on them claiming to send proceeds to breast cancer research, and yet still no cure. But they sell an awful lot of pink-ribboned stuff to stimulate the economy...

How many people would go broke if the research labs and drug companies closed shop? Hell, they’d have to engineer a whole NEW disease to treat after that, just to keep the machine working. You know, we never even cured the really nasty diseases of old like typhoid. Instead, we quit drinking the water we crap in, and we started bathing regularly. That, and not a telethon or a typhoid-awareness ribbon, stopped the typhoid epidemics. Small pox wasn’t cured; it was just forgotten about once we joined the electronic age. If some dirtbag in a cave in Afghanistan gets the idea to set loose some smallpox in New York, they’d kill millions. But we don’t inoculate for it anymore…it wasn’t sexy enough I guess. Maybe we’d need a cool animated commercial for Poxitol!

Yeah, I'm cynical. Yeah, I'm sarcastic. Someone has to be.

And now I've got you thinking.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Firefighter suspended for refusing to remove American flag from locker



CHESTER, Pa. - A Chester City firefighter is taking heat after he refused to take the American flag off of his locker, Myfoxphilly.com reported, and was suspended without pay.

James Krapf allegedly violated a department policy that states personal items can only be posted inside employee lockers when he stuck the flag on the outside. According to Myfoxphilly.com, the firefighters' union warned 11 others to remove personal items or face similar suspensions, all without pay.

The firefighter is trying to go back to work Friday night after being suspended without pay Thursday for refusing to take the flag sticker off his locker, Fox 29's Sharon Crowley reported.

James Krapf took a photo of his locker with the sticker on it at the Chester Fire Department's station, and he said he doesn't understand why his supervisor wants him to take it off. Krapf said he's patriotic and many American flags hang around the firehouse.

Krapf was suspended Thursday, and so far he's the only one who has been suspended. Krapf said he hoped to meet with the fire commissioner and the mayor to resolve the issue, though he still wants to be able to display an American flag.

"I shouldn't have to remove the flag of the country I believe in. I love my country," Krapf said. "I love my job. I love helping people. I've been doing this 11 years in the City of Chester, so this is something I love to do."

Fox 29 News tried to get answers directly from the fire commissioner Friday. He told a local newspaper banning all materials from locker doors was the simplest way to avoid bickering among the staff. So, rather than take charge of the situation and take a fucking stand against bullshittery and ass-hattery, the commish did what desk-riding bureaucrats do and just blanket-policy screwed the troops and then barred the doors.

When Crowley asked to talk with him, she got the run around, being repeatedly told he would be out to talk with her. Then, she was told he changed his mind and had no comment.

"Commissioner, hi. Can you tell us why you won't talk to us, because we've been out here all day?" Crowley asked.

"Yes, m'am, and I appreciate that," the commissioner said, as he rose from his desk during a cell phone call. "Thank you very much. We have no comment, and I think it's very rude that you barge into my office in the middle of a conversation."

What a dick. And, you know, when you look deeper into things, I’m not sure I can consider the American flag a personal possession in the context that it is the symbol of the entire nation and thus belongs to the entire nation once on display. So since it belongs to all of us, I’ll step up & give permission for Mister Krapft to continue being a patriot and a hero.

Commissioner James Johnson says “We wear the American flag on our uniform…it’s flying outside that station,” he said. “It is not about the American flag or patriotism.”

Then what’s it about? Perhaps it’s about making a blanket policy without thinking of what all it entailed, and having no way to back out of the shitpile you stepped in, because as the videos point out, this all started when a black firefighter posted up a cartoon on his locker about "black man has no free speech". And if the bosses come down on the black guy who says he has no free speech, then that just proves his point, right? So let's just make everyone take down everything to avoid looking racist instead of just telling one dude to knock it off. And when one dude finds a loophole to your new flawed policy, you have a shit fit?

And in a show of solidarity for his fellow firefighter, the firefighter who had put that cartoon up on his locker, Robert Butler, wore a knit cap with an upside-down American flag on it. He said he was not protesting the federal government but wore it “as the common meaning” of distress.

View more news videos at: http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/video.

World's Oldest MackDaddyPimp steps up to help veterans



Some days I’m torn as to how I feel about Hugh Hefner. On the one hand, I have to give the man kudos for following his own path and for creating a vast entertainment empire from scratch. And on the other hand I just think it’s a bit creepy to be a 3,000 year old man always wearing silk pajamas and a velvet smoking jacket, with a harem of silicone tarts young enough to be his grandkids.

Either way, I’ll stand behind Hugh for his latest efforts. This year his annual Halloween Party will benefit an exceptionally worthy cause, The Wounded Warrior Project.

As always Hef’s estate on Halloween night will be filled with all the usual suspects and Hollywood’s elite, and half-naked chicks everywhere. Additionally, there will be some very special guests this year, as over 40 wounded troops will also attend the party.

"Hef was kind enough to let the Wounded Warrior Project be a beneficiary on Halloween. Proceeds will help severely wounded veterans that have recently served in Afghanistan and Iraq," said Executive Director of the Halloween 09 bash Jose Dominguez. (General admission tickets start at $1,000 and go up to $15,000 for VIPs.) "Halloween is the most sought-after night at the Mansion so it was a good opportunity to support our veterans and enjoy a great party at the same time."
This isn’t Hef’s first time helping out the Wounded Warrior Project this year, either. Back on May 16th, 2009, there was another big function at the Playboy Mansion to benefit the troops. The website for the event is still up at www.starsandstripes09.com . The site offers some fascinating insight into parties that the likes of me and most of you will never get to see.


And for the record, Hugh Marston Hefner served in the United States Army during World War Two.

Rock on, Hef.

www.woundedwarriorproject.org

Thursday, October 15, 2009

We need a 10-day waiting period for sporks



That’s it. It’s over. Stick a fork in us. We’re done.

This country, the country I grew up in, the country I defended as a soldier, has ceased to exist. The United States of America has lost its collective fucking mind. I may as well pack my shit and go live in a hut somewhere, just to escape the wanton stupidity that our society has degenerated into.

Our kids go to school more hours per year than any other kids in the known universe, and yet millions of undereducated dolts “graduate” every year unable to read a job application but able to recite the Obama Mmmm Mmmm Mmmmm song. People love to bitch about the notion our kids should go to school year round, even though they already spend more time in school, ostensibly, than kids in other countries; meanwhile, Miss Teen South Carolina’s babblefest about not being able to find anything on a map shows us how effective our educational system is.

Our kids can’t play outside at recess because they might get hurt and the parents will sue. Our kids don’t get any gym classes because they might get hurt and the parents will sue, or if they do get to do some sport-like event they all get a participation trophy because everyone has to be a winner. Meanwhile gubmint-provided skool lunch now consists of sugar-frosted Ritalin, Mountain Dew, and ice cream sandwiches.

And of course, our schools are filled with underpaid, overworked teachers doing what they can with what little they are given, and I applaud their efforts, but the administrators who run these institutions are so enamored of red tape and bureaucratic bullshit and political-correctitude namby pamby nice-nice pattycake fear of getting sued that you get shit like 6-year olds getting 45-day reform-school suspensions for bringing their Cub Scout eating utensil to school because it’s construed as a weapon. This same school district in Newark, Delaware tried to expel a fifth grader for bringing a serrated knife to school with a birthday cake.

Assholes, the lot of them.

And now we have a 17-year old Eagle Scout in Troy, New York who has been forced out of school for at least 20 days for having a 2-inch pocket knife locked in his car. Matt Whalen, a senior at Lansingburgh High School, isn’t just an Eagle Scout, either. He’s also a soldier in the United States Army who recently completed his initial 10 weeks of basic training and is trying to get into West Point.
Whalen follows the Boy Scout motto and is always prepared, stocking his car with a sleeping bag, water, a ready-to-eat meal, and the pocket knife, which was given to him by his grandfather, a police chief in a nearby town no less. Hard to imagine a cop giving his grandson an illegal knife, no?

But Lansingburgh High has a zero-tolerance policy and bureaucrats can’t ever see mitigating circumstances to any rules unless it suits their agenda, so when school officials discovered that Whalen kept his knife locked in his car, he says, they suspended him for five days, and then tacked on an additional 15 days arbitrarily after a “hearing”.

In an interview with Foxnews.com, Whalen recalled the incident that led to his suspension.

He said his school's assistant principal, Frank Macri, approached him on September 21 and asked him if he was carrying a knife.

"I was taken down to the office, and they told me that a student told them that I was carrying a knife," Whalen said.

He said he told them "they could search me and everything, and they said, 'There's no need for that.'"

Whalen said he doesn't know who might have said he was carrying a knife, but he was open with school officials.

"And they said, 'Do you own a knife?' I said, 'Yes, I'm a soldier and an Eagle Scout — I own a knife.'

"And they were like, 'Well, is it in your car or anything?' And I told them, 'Yeah, it's in my car right now.'

"And they asked me to show it to them. I didn't realize it was going to be a problem. I knew it wasn't illegal — my police chief grandfather gave the knife to me."

Whalen said he took school administrators to his car because he thought their fears would be allayed when they saw it was just a 2-inch knife.

"They thought I had a dagger in my car or something like that, so I thought yeah, I'd show it to them," Whalen said.

"I showed it to them, and they told me I had a knife on school property and had to be suspended."

But things didn't end there, Whalen said.

"They brought a cop in, who told them 'he's not breaking any laws, so I can't charge him with anything.'"

Nice. The school wanted to make an example out of the war-mongering soldier within their Liberal midst, so they call the cops to arrest the deviant malcontent? Must have truly pissed them off that the kid did nothing illegal & couldn’t be charged, so they tack on an extra 15 days of bullshit.

Whalen said he asked Macri why a 2-inch pocketknife would be considered more dangerous than other everyday items around the school.

"I said to him, 'What about a person who has a bat, on a baseball team? That could be a weapon.' And he said, 'Well, it's not the same thing.'" Of course not, Macri. A pocket knife locked in the car of a trained professional? Holy shit, you should have called the FBI and reported him as a terrorist.

"They gave me the five-day suspension, because that is all a principal can suspend a student for," he said. "And from there, they had a superintendent hearing to see if the superintendent wanted to suspend me for longer.

"But the superintendent wasn't even at the hearing. It was the principal and the athletic director. The vice principal who originally suspended me wasn't even there, and neither was the superintendent. They basically asked me, 'Did you have the knife in your car?' And I said 'Yes, I did.' The meeting was recorded and they told me they were going to play the tape to the superintendent.

"They asked me if I wanted to say anything, and I told them all my accomplishments and what I've done, and the principal even admitted that I had no intent to use the knife, that I had no accessibility to the knife."

But school officials decided to suspend Whalen for an extra 15 days anyway, he said. And unless the decision is changed, he will not be allowed on school grounds until Oct. 21. And the fucksticks in charge aren’t about to let that happen, despite this upstanding young man missing a ninth of his school year over what amounts to bullshittery.

Whalen said he does not know why the 15 days were added, but he said a school district employee told him it was because the school wanted to apply its policies consistently.

"I've been told by someone who works for the district that they had to do it, because if someone else had a knife and they saw that I didn't get a suspension, that it would look bad for the school."

Yes, of course. We mustn’t look bad. Who cares if it’s right, so long as it looks good.

But the Lansingburgh School District ain’t budging. A person reached at the home of a school board member ducked, shucked & jived , and referred all calls to the superintendent, who told a local newspaper he thinks the punishment was "appropriate and fair," (despite not even being there for the hearing) and that it was necessary for the district to enforce its zero-tolerance policy evenly.

"Sometimes young people do things they may not see as serious," Superintendent George Goodwin told the Albany Times-Union. "We look at any possession of any type of knife as serious." Even when the “possession” is locked away in a car out in the parking lot and the alleged criminal mastermind is an Eagle Scout and a trained soldier.

Yet the knife is not considered a weapon by the New York State Education Department; definitions and punishments are left up to local school boards to decide. That’s doublespeak for “we pass the buck and the blame”.

Um, ya’ll do realize, of course, that this young man spent the summer toting around an M-16, tossing hand grenades, and learning about “the spirit of the bayonet”? And that the aforementioned bayonet is just a bit bigger than a keychain pocketknife locked in a car?

A baseball bat is a weapon, therefore you should ban baseball. What about the utensils in the school cafeteria? By God, you could take out an eye with a spork. Ban silverware and make the kids eat with their hands. You could get stabbed with a pencil, so ban pencils & make the kids write on slate easels with chalk.


You morons aren’t preparing these kids to be adults; you’re cowing them into being good little automaton Sheeple. This young man has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’s a mature and responsible citizen, and he has aspirations of leadership as an officer in the service of his nation, and you people are dicking with his future.

On Wednesday, West Point's director of admissions told Foxnews.com that Whalen's suspension alone wouldn't be a "show-stopper" and "didn't appear to be a big issue" for the youth, though it will appear on his record as the military academy considers his moral and ethical fiber.

"My concern would be, how does this impact on his academics?" said Colonel Deborah McDonald, the academy's head of admissions. "Because 20 (school) days is a long time to be suspended."

Agreed, Colonel. However, this young man’s morals & ethics should be plainly clear through the hard word and dedication shown by attaining the level of Eagle Scout and by having already become a soldier before even starting 12th grade.

I’m pleased to say that Matt is receiving a lot of support and positive feedback from cadets at the Academy through his Facebook account. Even I sent him an email.

Stay the course and fight the fight, troop. America is behind you.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

What's so offensive about the American flag? (From Bungalow Bill)



I caught this article over at Bungalow Bill's page (www.bungalowbillscw.blogspot.com)

"Isn’t it sad the red, white, and blue has become nearly as offensive in this country as Jesus Christ? My grandfathers fought for all that is good that the flag stands for, as many other fathers and grandfathers in this country. I know I have many readers whose family’s have sacrificed for the flag as well. Yet, we all have to put up with stories like what happened at the Oaks Apartments in Albany, Oregon.

Jim Clausen, who has a son fighting in Iraq, flies his American flag on his motorcycle and his car, his own personal property. The Oaks Apartment management demanded him take it off his car and motorcycle or face eviction. That’s right, he can’t fly them on his own personal property without the threat of the little weasels running the apartment complex.

“This flag stands for all those people," said Clausen. "It stands for the people that can no longer stand - who died in wars. That's why I fly this flag."

He isn’t the only resident to face the threat. Sharon White also flies the flag on her car, her own personal property, and has received threats of eviction also for flying Old Glory.

The Oaks management explained, “someone might get offended.” Would someone please tell me why it is now offensive to fly the flag in our own country? I think I would be moving if I were these residents, and may I recommend painting the flag on the walls before you leave. Of course you will lose your security deposit, but I will assure you it will be well worth it when the management walks into the apartment’s door. For the rest of you Patriots, don’t waste your time looking at any of the apartments in the Albany area ran by the same people who run the Oaks Apartments. Our flag is sacred, and there are too many people who have died for the flag to put up with their crap."


Well, gang....I think that the nation owes the management & owners of this apartment complex a call or letter. Let these folks know that it's NOT okay to sully the symbol of our nation, a flag that I and many of my fellow bloggers have defended in the military. This is OUR country and OUR flag. We're taking it back.

The Oaks Apartment Complex can be found at:
1140 Geary Circle SE
Albany, OR 97322
(541) 967-1284

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

ADD, ADHD, HFCS, Preservatives, Autism...A Repost or 2



A couple weeks ago there was an article I read that said that something like 1 in 100 adults has some form of autism. I was blown away. That's up from the numbers I saw last spring on a billboard here in town that said 1 in 400 kids had autism.

I keep hearing talk of connections between those wonderful vaccines we got as kids for measles, mumps, & rubella (frikkin' University of Maine made me get a booster shot at age 24 to get into the school. What a scam.) This on top of the vaccines I'd already received courtesy of Uncle Sugar for things like, oh, say...typhoid, typhus, scarlet fever, yellow fever, cholera, dengue fever, and plague series I.

I decided to dust off a couple of old posts of mine from 2007 that ya'll might find interesting.

High Fructose Corn Syrup Will Be The End of Our Species Saturday, May 12, 2007


I recently got back in touch with a friend from high school whom I’ve only seen once in the past 20 years, and that was briefly at our ten-year reunion. She and her husband, another classmate of mine, live a fairly simple, unfettered life in rural Vermont. She was worried that I’d poke fun at her “crunchy” lifestyle of tofu & veggies, but the more I think about it, Anne and Greg & their two kids will probably still be nibbling granola well after the rest of us are nibbling dirt. Why? Preservatives and high-fructose corn syrup, dummy.

The way I look at it, the last generation of healthy Americans was the generation that fought WW2. They grew up on farm-fresh perishable foods and stuff that didn’t have artificial colors and sweeteners. They canned and smoked their own foods. They got meat at the butcher shop and produce at the farmer’s markets. The milk didn’t have artificial growth hormones and came fresh to your door.

Then after WW2 when technologies changed, came the "miracles" of modern science, like TV dinners and sugary snacks and preservatives. The chemicals and shit everywhere were gobbled up by the Baby Boomers, who are the parents of my generation. My generation of kids, who were born in the late 60’s and early 70’s, I'm convinced our DNA was subtly altered by those chemicals, as well as all the drugs our parents took. I know I grew up on sugar-frosted everything, with chemicals and preservatives and unpronounceable words on the ingredient list, and USDA-approved artificial colors that don’t occur in nature. Now take a look at our kids…

As a school-aged student, I’d only vaguely heard the term “ADD” and I was in my early 20’s before I’d ever heard of Ritalin. Our DNA has changed enough to where the children spawned by my generation have so many chemical imbalances that they get diagnosed with an alphabet of syndromes and disorders before they make it past third grade. My generation grew up eating Twinkies, which have a shelf life longer than that of most nuclear waste. You could bury a Twinkie in the ground and dig it up 5 years from now, and it’ll still be edible. You can’t kill a Twinkie. They’re the Rasputin of snack foods. Whereas our parents’ generation smoked pot and dropped acid, and sometimes did heroin, my generation added cocaine, crack, paint huffing, Ecstasy, and crystal meth to the mix. I’m surprised our kids don’t have tentacles and scales. I’m beginning to think that Ritalin is part of the school lunch program these days, since so many kids are on it. But hell, Ritalin is just the Gateway Drug now. We’re building up immunity to it. Throw in Adderal, Clonadine, Tenex, Strattera, and Concerta to the stew. It’s shocking how many kids today need all these chemicals to correct imbalances in the genetic code.

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) will be the death of the human race. I defy you to go an entire week without eating or drinking something without HFCS as an ingredient. It’s damn near impossible anymore. When something is “sugar-free”, it usually means that instead of refined & processed white sugar, it’s instead loaded with enough HFCS to embalm a corpse, or some other even more insidious sweetening agent, like Aspartame or Splenda or some other chemically-enhanced concoction. Studies are showing that HFCS has a negative effect on metabolism and is a contributor to the pandemic obesity in the western world. Take a minute and walk over to your fridge. Start reading the labels and I guarantee you’ll find HFCS in more than you thought. I work at a dairy, and in a span of less than 45 seconds I found 3 products with HFCS in them in my storage cooler, and that was before I opened the ice cream cooler. There’s ketchup, BBQ sauce, pretty much every soda on the market, Thomas’ English Muffins, 9 outta 10 breakfast cereals, Miracle Whip, many cough syrups, all those Lunchables we stuff in our kids’ lunchboxes, Ocean Spray Cranberry drinks, even Wonderbread; all have HFCS as ingredients somewhere. The mesquite marinade I used at dinner had it listed as the first ingredient.

When I was a kid in the 70’s they pulled Saccharin off the shelves as a sweetener because it caused cancer, and yanked the drug Thalidomide, which was supposed to help with morning sickness but instead caused massive birth defects like missing limbs. The FDA approved both products and then had to recant, so who’s to say what the latest round of government-sanctioned yummies will do? The chemicals very well may be harmless when alone flying solo, but what happens when they all start to combine? Exposure to multiple layers of chemicals can cause myriad issues.

I read a book a few years ago that was written by Michael Donnelly, a former USAF fighter pilot who was suffering from ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease. He thought that his ALS, which cripples the nervous system, was brought about by exposure to multiple chemicals while in the first Gulf War. Prior to deployment, he was exposed to pesticides on his base as they sprayed for mosquitoes, then the military had him take pills that were anti-malarials and others that guarded supposedly against chemical-warfare agents, plus he had to fly through clouds of burning oil smoke. That smoke was chock full of burning petroleum residues, and who knows if there were various chemical weapons burning into the air too? If you think Gulf War Syndrome isn’t real, then why is the rate of birth defects, miscarriages, and other unexplainable health maladies so high in Gulf War veterans? In his book, Donnelly stated that the rate of ALS amongst Gulf War vets was 37 times the national average. Major Donnelly died in 2005 from his disease.

Oh yeah, our DNA is changing as a result of preservatives and chemical exposure and shitty lifestyle choices. Won’t it be ironic when intelligent life from some other galaxy lands on Earth and finds that humans went extinct as a result of the wondrous crap they created to prolong their lives? Oh well, at least they’ll have Twinkies to eat.


ADHD and PreservativesMonday, September 7, 2007

I swear I’m a freakin’ clairvoyant sometimes. At least three months ago I told you guys that preservatives and HFCS were messing with the DNA of the world’s kids.
(http://mojosteve.blogspot.com/2007/05/high-fructose-corn-syrup-will-be-end-of.html)

Now there’s all this hullabaloo and hubris over a study that just came out that links preservatives to ADHD.

A carefully designed study released Thursday in The Lancet, a leading British medical journal, shows that a variety of common food dyes and the preservative sodium benzoate, an ingredient in many soft drinks, fruit juices, and other foods, causes some kids to become more hyperactive and distracted than usual. You don’t say?

The research, led by Jim Stevenson, a professor of psychology at England's University of Southampton, involved about 300 children in two age groups. There were 153 3-year-olds and 144 8- and 9-year-olds from the general population. In all, 267 of the 297 children completed the study and were evaluated by teachers and parents for behavior changes. Over three one-week periods, the children were randomly assigned to consume one of three fruit drinks daily: one contained the amount of dye and sodium benzoate typically found in a British child's diet, a second drink had a lower concentration of the additives, and a third was additive-free. All the children spent a week drinking each of the three mixtures, which looked and tasted alike. During each week-long period, teachers and parents (who didn’t know which drink the kids were getting) used a variety of standardized behavior-evaluation tools — some observational and one computer-based — to size up restlessness, lack of concentration, fidgeting, and talking or interrupting too much.

Stevenson found that children in both age groups were significantly more hyperactive when drinking the stuff containing additives. Three-year-olds had a bigger response than the older kids to the lower dose of additives — roughly the same amount of food coloring as in two 2-oz. bags of candy. And, there were big individual differences in sensitivity. While the effects were not nearly so great as to cause full-blown ADHD, Stevenson nonetheless warns that "these adverse effects could affect the child's ability to benefit from the experience of school."

In response to the study, some pediatricians cautioned that a diet without artificial colors and preservatives might cause other problems for children.

“Even if it shows some increase in hyperactivity, is it clinically significant and does it impact the child’s life?” said Dr. Thomas Spencer, a specialist in Pediatric Psychopharmacology at Massachusetts General Hospital. “Is it powerful enough that you want to ostracize your kid? It is very socially impacting if children can’t eat the things that their friends do.”

True. It’s much better to have an obese hyperactive kid that’s loved by everyone than a healthy kid without a skewed sense of self-worth wrapped up in a Twinkie wrapper. To quote blogger Brett Levy: “What kind of insane society do we live in where we keep toxic chemicals in food all for the benefit of our children’s “socialization?” “

Besides, unless these kids get hooked on Ritalin, Adderal, and all that other yummy stuff, the doctors don’t get any kickbacks from drug manufacturers.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Pope canonizes new saints, including Obama...



It seems that Herr Heilige Vater, Pope Benedict the....um....wait I gotta read the numerals again....16th! Yeah, Pope Benedict XVI....has canonized some new saints, among them Saint Barack Obama, despite his still being alive.



Now, in order to become a saint, ordinarily, one must have been dead at least 5 years. They also have to have performed at least two miracles. Saint Obama turned truth into lies and turned democracy into Marxism, all within 9 months.





Also miraculous is that he is mostly worshiped by atheistic Marxists and Liberal Democrats, and that his appeal has also breached the divide between Muslims and non-Muslims.....even Islamic terrorists have been known to chant Obama Akbar before having their wealth redistributed.



All hail Saint Obama, Patron Saint of Bailouts. Amen.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Happy Coming Out Day 2009


Yes, I run a Conservative bog. Yes, most Conservatives are against homosexuality. Yes, I'm a heterosexual male with a lot of friends in the GLBT community. Since when have I ever done what everyone else does?

Today is the annual celebration of National Coming Out Day, and I tip my hat today to all my gay friends. You are who you are and you love who you love.

Two of you I've known since high school. One of you was in the Army with me.

You've opened your homes to me and broken bread with me.

You accept me for who I am. I accept you for who you are.

That's the way it should be.

Another Civil War unknown is laid to rest



A couple Sundays ago I posted about an unknown Union soldier who was killed at the Battle of Antietam during the American Civil War. His bones had been discovered by chance, but the only clues to his identity were his New York-issued uniform buttons. His remains were returned to New York for proper burial.

This weekend, another unknown American from the Civil War is laid to rest. Due to the vagary of uniforms at this stage of the war when the Battle of Franklin was fought, making a determination of which army he was in by the buttons wasn’t possible, so his coffin was draped with both Union and Confederate flags, and his honor guard featured re-enactors from both sides. Furthermore, soil was collected from 18 different states associated with the Civil War to be poured into the man’s grave to ensure that at least something of his native home would be interred with his remains, including soul collected from the Devil’s Den section of the Gettysburg National Battlefield.

Most of this article comes from Kevin Walters of The Tennessean newspaper, with additional details from the Associated Press.

FRANKLIN, TN
— Six months ago, workmen's shovels first pried loose the skeleton of a Civil War soldier buried 145 years ago in an unmarked grave on a field now under commercial development along Columbia Avenue.

Today, a new grave and coffin will cradle the man's bones. He will be buried under a monument of limestone in Rest Haven Cemetery with soil fetched from 18 Civil War states, North and South.

"This soldier represents all of the soldiers, the thousands that were lost and are still buried across the South," said Robin Hood, chairman of the Franklin Battlefield Task Force that organized the event.

It's unknown which side the soldier fought on when he was among the nearly 2,000 killed in the 1864 Battle of Franklin. Construction workers happened upon the anonymous soldier's shallow grave in May.

Military buttons found with the remains were from the Civil War, but they don't prove whether the soldier was a Union man or a Confederate, Hood said.

"Some of them were Union and some of them were Southern," he said. "And that late in the war a lot of the Southern buttons were Union buttons, because the Confederate buttons didn't hold up as well."

The coffin draped in Confederate and Union flags was transported from St. Paul's Episcopal Church, which served as a barracks and hospital during the conflict, to Rest Haven Cemetery in a horse-drawn carriage accompanied by Civil War re-enactors.

A new memorial at the cemetery features a limestone column that was once part of the state Capitol, which served as Union stronghold during the war.

"If this man was a Union solider, his comrades may have actually passed through those columns," Hood said. "So it's fitting."

Yet men and women who have filed through St. Paul's Episcopal Church to see the man's coffin during the past two days say they don't want today's event — which has been planned down to the minute — to overshadow the humanity of someone whose name they probably will never know and whose beliefs they can only guess at.

Instead they say their thoughts turn to soldiers fighting everywhere today, and to their own mortality and legacies. What would you want to happen if someone dug up your bones?

"This was someone's son," said Kraig McNutt, who publishes a Battle of Franklin blog. "He probably wrote home to his wife and talked about his conditions at the time and how hungry he was. … He was an American soldier who was fighting for what he believed in, regardless of what side he was on."

Since the bones were unearthed, speculation about the man's life and death has varied. There's no proof about who he was.

There was no marker on the grave. No identification was found with his skeleton except a handful of brass buttons carrying a federal eagle symbol, a fired Minié ball, tacks from the soles of his boots and a glass bead. All of these will be buried today with the bones.

Fighting tore through Franklin on Nov. 30, 1864, leaving thousands of dead Union and Confederate soldiers — mostly farther north on Columbia Avenue of where the skeleton was discovered.

That has led to speculation from historians that the man died sometime in December 1864, after the Battle of Nashville, when Union troops pursued Confederate forces back through Franklin.

Some have said the man might have been a Confederate soldier who was wearing Union buttons.

"Folks can discuss it as much as they like but we'll never know," said retired teacher Bill Heard, 60, of Cookeville, Tenn., who wore a navy blue Union uniform as he stood guard over the coffin. "Some folks just like to take ownership."

The unknown soldier is being buried in Rest Haven Cemetery in Franklin — a city that was part of the Confederacy — rather than another military cemetery simply because Franklin is where he was originally buried.

"If, obviously, we knew which state he was from or which army he fought for, we would look into those locations," said Robin Hood, funeral organizer. Rest Haven is "an historic cemetery and not just anyplace."


For two days, hundreds of people have creaked along the wooden floors of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, which was used as a barracks for Union troops during the Civil War occupation of Franklin. More than 400 had come through by midmorning Friday.

Part of the outpouring can be traced to national and local media coverage. A film crew is recording the events for a documentary, and two living sons of Civil War veterans will attend.

But McNutt, who is a re-enactor, thinks some people are flocking to the event because it's "a little like a trophy to them" rather than to remember the man.
"I think there are some who — to be quite bold, if you will — they want to continue to live in the past," McNutt said. "They still want to fight these wars and have these arguments."

Yet people coming to the coffin — some in uniform, some with cameras, some bearing gifts — said they kept this man's sacrifice and others' foremost on their minds. Restaurateur Danny Eldridge, 58, a Franklin resident who wore a Confederate butternut wool uniform, also helped stand guard over the coffin. The larger lessons of the Civil War are still alive today, he said.

"The Civil War actually made us a stronger nation than I think what we would have been without it," Eldridge said.

Candice Lawen, 38, brought her six children, who placed roses next to the coffin. The trip was a history lesson for her kids, whom she home-schools. The unknown soldier's death affected her.

"At the end of his life, nobody knew where he was or anything," Lawen said. "His parents didn't know where he was. It's really sad. It's great that he can be honored."

The burial of a man he never knew also affected Greg Wade, founder of the Franklin Civil War Round Table. He thought of his own family — including a son serving in the Army, his daughter in the Navy, and another son who's a police officer — and their work.

"I've got kids in the service myself and if anything ever happened, I'd want someone to take care of them," Wade said.

Among the history buffs paying tribute to him were two old men whose fathers fought on opposing sides in the War Between the States.

The services were attended by two elderly men whose fathers served in the Civil War.
Harold Becker's father fought for the Union in the Battle of Franklin.

"It was his first battle after he joined up in 1864," said Becker, 91, of Rockford, Mich. "And after the battle, he developed measles and he spent 18 days in a hospital."

Becker's father, Charles Conrad Becker, served in the 128th Indiana Infantry, and later was part of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's March to the Sea.

James Brown, 97, vented some mock indignation upon hearing the firebrand general's name.

"You mentioned about Sherman — I should shoot you!" joked Brown, whose father served in the 8th Georgia Infantry. "Sherman was a thorn in the side of everybody in the South."

Both Brown and Becker were born to elderly fathers — veterans in their 70's who survived well into the 20th Century.

Brown's father, James H. H. Brown of Oglethorpe County, Ga., was not at the Franklin battle, but fought at several others including Shiloh, Manassas and Gettysburg. A rifleman, he was also at Appomattox when Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered, ending the war.

"He didn't talk too much about the Civil War, but he did tell to us boys what a hardship they had," said Brown, who was 11 when his father died. "No shoes, not enough food to eat. Toward the end it was pretty tough."

Becker said his father didn't often speak about the war either.

"He maybe talked to my older brothers more about it, but he mentioned various things," said Becker, a retired refrigeration engineer. "On nice days he'd lean his chair back and smoke his one cigar a day, and would tell us stories about the war."

Both men said they were pleased to be part of the ceremony for the unknown soldier.
"I thought it was a wonderful and marvelous affair," said Brown, a retired hotelier who now lives on Tellico Lake.

James Brown, left, and Harold Becker

Regardless of which army he fought with, this was an American soldier. Welcome home, brother and rest in peace.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

The Alfred Nobel Monetary Gift for Bullshittery and Global Ass-Kissery



Look, kids…the blogosphere is SLAM full of folks bitching about this fiasco coming out of Sweden. I’m not gonna harp too too much about it, but I gotta at least mention it.



Nobel Peace Prize? For what? Are you shitting me? For flying around on my dime apologizing to every Third World despot, tinpot dictator, and oil-rich terror-sponsor in the world? Last I knew, they opened the voting for this year’s Monetary Gift for Bullshittery and Global Ass Kissery last November and closed voting in February. His Most Exalted, The Obamessiah, Blessed Be His Name, (Obama Akhbar!!!) had been on the job only about three weeks or so and had only JUST BEGUN to fuck up this country even further than it was already. So what exactly did Mister Done-Nothing do to get this award? Flap his clamshells and make some pretty speeches. Hell, if that’s all the criteria we need, then I guess I shoulda gotten the Nobel Prize for Literature this year. I feel robbed. Again.

I wouldn’t give him the fucking prize out of a Happy Meal.


Nobel Peace Prize…what a joke. Guilt-money left in a trust by a guy who felt bad for inventing dynamite and owned Bofors, a company that makes some really outstanding weapons systems do this day. Delicious irony indeed to have a guy who got rich off of warfare & blowing shit up doling out peace money in perpetuity post mortem.

The best way to get a Prize? Be a Liberal Progressive ass kisser.

Woodrow Wilson, noted Progressive and founder of the League of Nations, precursor to that shit-up squirrel cage at 1st Avenue and 46th Street in Manhattan called the United Nations.

Cordell Hull, one of FDR’s cronies and father of the UN. Thanks Cordy.

Yasser Arafat… known terrorist.

Jimmy Carter, noted disaster.

Al Gore, noted douchebag.

And in several years, they just ran out of enough worthy asskissers and granola munchers and handed the shit out to the UN or various subsidiaries of the UN, the Hague, and international “peace” groups.


I bet Bono is seething with rage under his mosquito netting, wondering why he was passed over again.

If I had a dollar for every pair of Bono shades, I wouldn't need a Nobel Prize...

With any luck, the prize money will be taxed to death by his own administration to where he’s left with just Hope and spare Change. The way the dollar is tanking, his best bet is to ask for the payment in Euros…or just pay him in sides of Wagyu Beef.



In addition to starting his own salad dressing line, it’s also been announced that Obama has already been pre-selected as the next Pope, has been crowned Miss America 2010 and 2011, has won the 2010 Academy Award for Best Picture, received the 2010 Grammy for Best New Artist and Best Spoken Word Performance With a Teleprompter, and will be playing himself in a new Saturday morning superhero cartoon partnered up with Spider Man.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Wish You Well (Or how much I love being psychic)

Sometimes I have to marvel at my own idiot/savant-like ability to predict the stuff that happens on TV shows.

Then again, most of the shows on TV these days are pretty trite and predictable, but I digress.

A little backstory: About 5 weeks ago, I was at my work station here at the Command Bunker, ensconced behind my magic laptop merrily writing whilst listening to some radio stations streaming online. I have a list of preset stations that I follow when I'm writing, especially if Missus Steve is watching something I have zero interest in. My most frequent stations to follow are KROQ-HD out of Los Angeles and Classic Live-105 out of San Fransisco. Both play 80's and 90's New Wave and Alternative.

I was skimming my presets when I stopped in on X-107.5 in Las Vegas when I heard this really haunting & sad song by an artist that I'd never heard of. I thought Missus Steve would like it so I copied the artist & title down & sent her You-Tubing to listen. The song is called "Wish You Well" by a young lady named Katie Herzig. We liked the song, and kinda filed the info away. I thought, however, that the song was the perfect sad, chick-song for an episode of Grey's Anatomy. We both agreed that it would have been perfect to play on the first episode of the new season once they revealed that George dies. At the time, we were still well over a couple weeks away from the episode airing but we already knew what was coming.

The song wasn't featured in that episode, but be damned if it didn't show up in last night's episode, at a critically sad moment in the storyline. I felt vindicated as hell....

I'd like to share the song with you guys in hopes that you'll like it too. I was unable to find an official video for the song, so I'm just gonna link a fan-made video off YouTube and give ya'll the lyrics.

Wish You Well
Written by Katie Herzig (Katie Herzig Music/ASCAP)

I, I want to wish you well
I didn’t watch you go
Cause I suppose I don’t know how
I, I will remember you
Not the way you left but how you lived
And what you knew

I, I want to feel your hands
I want to feel your fire burning
Right from where I stand

I’ll find my way
Cause you showed me how

I, I want toknow it’s you
When I hear your voice inside my head
Inside my room
I, want to touch the sky
I want to see the stars twinkle
Like they were your eyes

I’ll find my way
You showed me
I’ll find my way
Cause you showed me how

I, I want to smell your scent
I want to breathe the air I did before
Before you left

I, I want to wish you well
The only reason my heart beats
Is cause you showed it how

I’ll find my way
You show me
I’ll find my way
You show me
I’ll find my way
Cause you showed me how
You show me how
You showed me how

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Save the Ta-Ta's



Y’know, I’m pretty fortunate. I only live about 45 miles away from my mom, and I stop in and see her as often as I can. I really should stop in more often, though, and since I know my mom reads my blog, I’ll apologize publicly right here. I love you, Mom!

Actually, I’m beyond fortunate; I’m blessed. You see, I’m the proud son of a breast cancer survivor. Mom just recently had her checkup, and is still cancer free.

Not everyone is as fortunate as me, though. One of my oldest & dearest friends (who shall remain anonymous to protect his privacy) lost his mom to breast cancer a little while before we met almost 20 years ago. Fear not, brother, for her memory and legacy lives on.

I bring this all up to remind all of you that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Ladies, do your self-exams and see your doctor regularly for screenings. Guys, remind the women in your lives to do what they need to do. And furthermore guys, check yourselves as well. Men can, and do, get breast cancer too.

Early detection is paramount to beating breast cancer. They caught my mom’s at the very earliest stage on a routine mammogram and began an aggressive treatment regimen right away. So please, do what you gotta do. It could save your life, or the life of someone you love.

In conjunction with Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and to celebrate the start of the 2009-10 season, the National Hockey League and the National Hockey League Players' Association are currently hosting their annual Hockey Fights Cancer Awareness Month. The League-wide initiative includes activities that involve all 30 teams, players, management and fans, as well as special Hockey Fights Cancer-themed merchandise, all with the goal of raising awareness and funds for this important cause.

Each NHL club will designate one October home game as its Hockey Fights Cancer Awareness Night. The teams will collaborate with local and national cancer organizations to promote cancer awareness and raise funds for hockey's most important fight. Events will include on-ice presentations, 50/50 raffles, promotional giveaways, contests and discount ticket offers. Arena suites and tickets will be donated to children's hospitals and cancer-affiliated programs, and young patients will be involved with in-game opportunities -- including rides on the Zamboni, puck drops, radio booth visits and player meet-and-greets. There also will be online, live and silent auctions of signed items, including helmets, sticks, jerseys and other team merchandise. Several clubs will continue to promote awareness by participating in local hospital visits and fund-raising runs and walks.

Hockey Fights Cancer is a joint initiative founded in December 1998 by the National Hockey League and the National Hockey League Players' Association to raise money and awareness. It is supported by NHL Member Clubs, NHL Alumni, the NHL Officials' Association, Professional Hockey Trainers and Equipment Managers, corporate marketing partners, broadcast partners and fans throughout North America. To date, more than $10.5 million has been raised to support national and local cancer research.


Locally my ECHL team, the South Carolina Stingrays, will host their annual Pink In The Rink night in February, with the team wearing pink jerseys, playing with pink sticks, and the ice surface itself will be dyed pink. The jersey auctions after the game are always a huge success. Last year the Rays raised over $18,000 for cancer awareness & research from the game. This year their goal is for $30,000.

Go out & get involved, and help save lives. Don’t be a boob.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Top Ten Reasons Why Chicago Lost The 2016 Olympics



We have a great show tonight. From Iron Chef: America; the Chairman, Mark Dacascos. Star of countless fitness videos and operator of a glory hole off the Long Island Expressway; Richard Simmons. And our musical guest tonight, Festering Scab. And now tonight's Top Ten List.....



From our home offices near Round-O, South Carolina.....Top ten....The Top Ten Reasons...Now, Paul, you just heard the giant travesty that a bunch of Republican swine conspired with the Zionist Jews of the International Olympic Committee to shame and embarrass our Dear Leader, the Obamessiah by awarding the 2016 Olympics to Rio, a city known for slums and topless carnivals, instead of our own safe, moral, and God-fearing city of Chicago. So here's tonight's Top Ten Reasons that Chicago lost the 2016 Olympics.....











And our number one reason why Chicago lost the 2016 Summer Olympics is...



And that's tonight's Top Ten List, brought to you by ACORN Mortgage and Loan!