Trust me, I’m as surprised as you are.
This all just came gushing out of me today - redo the colors and the logo, tweak the css, and redo that nav that doesn’t render right in Firefox. It’s a bit easier on the eyes, I think. But I’m just one man. Thoughts?
My apologies to Andy, who’s post unintentionally inspired this rant. He can frag my ass, UT-style, in retaliation later.
I’m sure by now, most of you have either received that e-mail in your inbox - no, not the ones for “pen is” enlargement or that work from home offer, but the one from a lawyer to his four sons. If you haven’t - well, I’m sure you can find it around here somewhere. Supposedly written by a lawyer to his sons regarding the War On Terror™, it details the reasons behind the war and why he thinks this or that and blah blah blah.
My first thought is a question - what father writes this kind of e-mail to his kids? No, seriously. Have any of you ever gotten anything from a parental unit regarding the world at large in this kind of format? The day my father writes me an essay will be the day before he gets checked into a home. Hell, have you even had a conversation with a parent on this kind of scale? “Well son, I disagree with you on some points, and if you’ll refer to the reference material I supplied you at the beginning of this chat, you’ll see my sources for my opinion in the footnotes.”
Secondly, even if you believe the backstory for this little missive, you can take that bit about being unbiased and chuck it straight out the window, because (as I have stated before) everything has a bias. Everything. And even if we disregard that, the quick flip in his opinion of Muslims belies that bias. He says, “I don’t blame the peaceful Muslims”, then near his closing, asks “Will we ever stop hearing from the politically correct, about the ‘peaceful Muslims’?” I dunno, Mr. Lawyer-Dad-person, evidently you are one of those “politically correct” who’s misguided efforts will destroy this country if you think there are “peaceful Muslims”. If you undermine your own opening argument with your closing, you absolutely lose credibility with me - and hopefully, with anyone who’s actually read that story, not just scanned the lines and nodded your head emphatically as the whiz-bang spirit of patriotism it hopes to evoke from you wells up like a gusher of freedom, spreading across this land and the world.
Ok, maybe that was a bit much.
I’ve mentioned my thoughts on the whole War On Terror™ before, so you know I’m not a Pro-Bush guy. But I’m not an antiwar Michael Moore marxist, either - Moore does more to destroy the left’s credibility than 100 Rush Limbaughs and Ann Coultiers could ever hope to achieve. I think the Afghanistan was legitimate, I think removing Saddam was absolutely the right thing to do (even though the reasons given for it were false - and I’ll leave the argument about who knew what, and when, to people with more time than sense). The reason you see more right bashing than left on this page? Well, the right seems to be commiting the more egregious offenses. But whenever I see these mass e-mails posted, I have to just shake my head. People are quick to dismiss the improbable in their inbox because they’re used to those type of scams by now. But drop an opinion in it and toss in some paragraphs, and not only is it legitimate, but it’s damn near American canon - it must be true, I read it on the intraweb.
I absolutely invite people to read something, think about it, and form their own opinions on it. But unless it comes from a verifiable source, and not some anonymous lawyer in cyberspace, you probably won’t get me to take it seriously.
The house seems to be going at a decent pace. This weekend’s visit revealed that half of our outside walls are done, and there’s plenty of concrete block ready to make the rest. So, between that, the rebar, and the occasional bit of plumbing sticking out of the ground, it pretty much looks like a bomb went off in a nearby construction yard, blowing it’s contents onto our lot in neat piles, Bugs-Bunny style.
In case you missed the subtle hint above, there are now pictures. I’m going to try and document this thing as much as I can, because otherwise my digital camera will continue to sit on my desk, lonely and neglected.
On a scale of one
to five, I give the car chase
a big “holy shit”.
For those of you just arriving to the Internet - and if you are, I’d really like to know how you wound up here - a news flash: Internet Explorer sucks. No, really, it does. Even if you overlook the abundance of popup ads, spyware, malware, and adware that IE allows to be installed on your computer almost willy-nilly (but how the hell can you?), you still have to deal with sub-par functionality and occasional bizarre rendering behavior.
So, do what I, and my father, and anyone else I can mention within earshot have done: ditch IE. Yes, you can, in fact, ditch IE forever. That’s right, you, Mr. or Ms. Non-Computer Expert (whichever the case may be). Point IE (for the last time) to Mozilla.org and get your free copy of Firefox. It’s not shareware - there are no hidden ads, no spyware, no popups, and nothing else to buy - EVER. It will even copy over your IE favorites. Join the revolution! Stick it to the man! Make the switch - your computer will thank you (Assuming the enormous amount of spyware already on your computer hasn’t already taken over and formed a primitive sentient consciousness that is hellbent on the destruction of mankind).
Seriously, making the switch from IE was one of the best decisions I’ve made regarding web browsing and my sanity, and I cannot recommend it enough. And check out the cool browser extensions!
Where’s my Will Smith rap
song? I feel cheated. Decent
summer popcorn flick.
Since this has nothing to do with my city or state, I’ll just toss this one out to the wind:
Governator Arnold Schwartzenegger refered to Democrats as “Girlie Men” over the weekend, prompting apopleptic fits from people who really just need to get over it. Calif. State Sen. Sheila Kuehl called it “blatant homophobia.” Assemblyman Mark Leno said it was “as misogynist as it is anti-gay.” Others equally gibbered and drooled onto themselves in their primal rage.
No wonder some people have the image of Dems that they do. Granted, California is a singularly unique state amongst our great, collective 50. But honestly, couldn’t they have handled this with a bit more aplomb? Perhaps noting that Arnold, resorting to a 10+ year old joke, was just as behind the times with his budget ideas? Maybe trying to compare him to other past SNL characters?
Or maybe…just maybe, ignoring it, and bringing things back to the issues. But who cares about issues when it’s a hell of a lot easier to take offense to a dumb joke.
Ran across this artice at D-42: Josh Cohen Online. For those of you who complain that the TSA is too draconian, that we’ve gone too far with eliminating civil liberties - and I admit, I am one of those people - you might want to think, and think hard, about why you feel that way, after reading Terror in the skies, again? I’m still trying to digest it myself.
A belated happy birthday is in order for Ubergeek, who gets to celebrate every birthday with fireworks that he doesn’t even have to buy. See ya at the Buffet tonight, you wascawwy wabbit you.
I had this big entry done on my week, and how it went from fantastic to flat on it’s ass in a matter of two days - but thought better of it. Whining on this page only gets me so far, and while it may make me feel better, it honestly serves none of us any good whatsoever. Suffice it to say that the two new tires I got, and the replacement parking brake I’m getting today, were just the icing on the crapitudinal cake.