The Gentlemen Revolutionaries

The Attack On America

2007-04-12T10:24:00.000-04:00

When it was born this blog led an unfocused existence, mostly targeting things that pissed me off or I found ridiculous. Then life came in and this blog led no existence at all.

But now, I have a mission for this blog. It is to lead a focused, principled existence speaking aggressively about the eroding of free speech in this country.

First lets begin by reading the First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Specifically, the First Amendment addresses Congress, and gives instructions to their behavior. However, over time the interpretation that we have given the First Amendment is that it is unacceptable for any party to restrict the speech of any other party. The common rallying call of those of us with this opinion is the famous quote by Beatrice Hall (though commonly, through Ms. Hall's own actions, it is incorrectly attributed to Voltaire).

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

Today, Free Speech is under assault by both law makers and the public. Of course I am making reference to the Don Imus situation.

What Imus said could easily have been offensive to those basketball players... if they had the emotions of a five year old. The only reason it was considered to be offensive by them was because they were told to be offended. Plain and simple, it was a bad joke. Yet Imus is being attacked as if he is the reincarnation of Hitler. He took nothing away from anyone, yet people want to take away his lively hood (and more offensive to me they want to take away any possibility for him to help children with cancer). What he said was wrong, but it was not the end of the world. Had it not been approached in the way it was those three, apparently, offensive words would not be uttered at the top of every news broadcast.

To be clear I cannot criticize CBS's decision to suspend him, it was a valid business decision (based on invalid reasons I note below). I will criticize MSNBC for taking him off the air during his pledge drive to help children with cancer (no matter your opinion of Imus, please consider any pledge to the foundation, children should not suffer due to the problems of adults. Give at 1-877-877-6464), but will not criticize them for firing him, as, once again it may be a valid business decision (though a poor one).

The troubling part of this situation is multifaceted. The first troubling part is that people have become so sensitive that an off color remark can be characterized as being offensive. Being offended is, in a sense, a personal choice. The words I say do not offend, they are words. It is your decision to react or not that causes you to be offended. All too often being offended is expected and, in a sense, is becoming a social requirement. By this I mean if you are insulted (or your group is insulted) instead of just writing the person off that said it, you are expected to be outraged. This is not the sign of a healthy society.

More troubling though, is the reaction of some government officials, illustrated in the following statement.

I've never been asked to go on his show and I've never wanted to go on his show and I certainly don't ever intend to go on his show. I felt that way before his latest, outrageous, hateful, hurtful comments. And they just reaffirmed my belief that there really shouldn't be a place for that kind of outrageous commentary on the public airwaves. - Hillary Clinton.

Senator Clinton, this is one of the most troubling statements I have ever heard from a politician (including what we have been told by the Bush administration). You are advocating the CENSORSHIP of PUBLIC airwaves? Not only is that unconstitutional but it is immoral (I am almost considering being offended by it). Are you really that gutless Senator?

Where is the politician that stands up and says I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it? Unfortunately... I do not believe they exist.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

2006-07-24T16:21:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lack of coverage recently- New post coming within the next 24 hours. The truth about hybrids.

Then I will fit some commentary on the middle east situation in soon, it isnt as terrible as it looks.

Dear CNN, Go jump off a bridge onto a rocky out cropping. Love, TGR

2006-07-10T13:40:00.000-04:00

You know what I hate more than anything? Its not politicians lying to the people. Its not people accepting it. Its the media ignoring it.

It has come to light that there is a "major" secret intelligence program that the White House is running that it kept secret from the public. But not only did it keep it secret from the public but it also kept it secret from congress.

The White House is instructed to report all of these programs to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. It did not.

This is not one of those little "president got a hummer from an intern" stories. This is more like one of those President is looking more and more fascist every day stories. Now lets take a look at the articles that are deemed more important by CNN.

1) Toyota Tundra Recall- important, especially because a family member owns a Tundra... but how many people drive one? And how many people are under this President? Oh that is what I thought.

2) Baby Mauled by family dog- Tragic, sad, but only in the paper because it is a Pit Bull and people freak out about that breed even though it is just bad owners. The only way this story is news worthy is if you change "family dog" to "Michael Jackson"; and "Mauled By" to "Mauls." Now that is a headline.

3) Soap actor commits suicide- Sucks for that dude and the six people who care.

4) Monkeys reunion tour? Not a chance!- Ok... So I am aware that the Monkeys did infact, at one time, exist. I am also aware that they sucked and they were made popular through clever marketing. I am also aware that it was our mothers that loved them. That all said. I say go screw yourself. You were hardly important then and you are far from important now.

Oh and as a side note, the above were as of 11am on 7/10, as of 1:30 pm on 7/10 it wasnt on the main page at all.

Great reporting CNN. Great reporting.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/07/09/intel.briefings/index.html

Chances are they are watching you read this site

2006-06-29T09:41:00.000-04:00

The NSA's illegal tapping program keeps getting worse. First it was international phone calls, then it came out that domestic phone calls were being monitored as well, and now it appears that your internet traffic is most likely being monitored as well... not just where you go but the content that you get when you are there. This means they can see the sites, see what you put up or download, see your emails, see your financial records, see any personal inmformation at all that you put on the net, no matter how secure or encrypted it is.

So we have gone from sketchy, to illegal, to downright, no way getting around it, insane. This is probably the most illegal act the Bush administration is taking and it is time for congress to act. But they wont, so it is up to us. Write your congressmen, and for god sakes vote and vote for someone that will put a stop to this garbage (though i am not endorsing one party over the other that probably means democrats).

Background info on this is here (Great read really quality info on how the government is abusing you): http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/index.php?p=1103

Here are directions on how to find out if you are being watched or if the site you are frequenting is being watched:

With that in mind, here's the 27B Stroke 6 guide to detecting if your
traffic is being funneled into the secret room on San Francisco's Folsom
street.

If you're a Windows user, fire up an MS-DOS command prompt. Now
type
tracert followed by the domain name of the website, e-mail host, VoIP
switch, or
whatever destination you're interested in. Watch as the program
spits out your
route, line by line.

C:\> tracert nsa.gov

1 2 ms 2 ms 2 ms
12.110.110.204
[...]
7 11 ms 14 ms 10 ms
as-0-0.bbr2.SanJose1.Level3.net
[64.159.0.218]
8 13 12 19 ms
ae-23-56.car3.SanJose1.Level3.net
[4.68.123.173]
9 18 ms 16 ms 16 ms
192.205.33.17
10 88 ms 92 ms 91 ms
tbr2-p012201.sffca.ip.att.net
[12.123.13.186]
11 88 ms 90 ms 88 ms
tbr1-cl2.sl9mo.ip.att.net
[12.122.10.41]
12 89 ms 97 ms 89 ms
tbr1-cl4.wswdc.ip.att.net
[12.122.10.29]
13 89 ms 88 ms 88 ms
ar2-a3120s6.wswdc.ip.att.net
[12.123.8.65]
14 102 ms 93 ms 112 ms
12.127.209.214
15 94 ms 94 ms
93 ms 12.110.110.13
16 * * *
17 * * *
18 * *

In the above
example, my traffic is jumping from Level 3
Communications to AT&T's
network in San Francisco, presumably over the OC-48
circuit that AT&T
tapped on February 20th, 2003, according to the Klein
docs.

The
magic string you're looking for is sffca.ip.att.net. If it's
present
immediately above or below a non-att.net entry, then -- by Klein's
allegations -- your packets are being copied into room 641A, and from there,
illegally, to the NSA.

If you are behind a corporate firewall you will have to wait till you get home to do this, and if you are behind a router at home, make sure you turn off that firewall temporarily (be certain that you turn it back on!).

Being unfocused isnt good for Revolutionaries

2006-06-28T14:50:00.000-04:00

Lots of things dancing around in the skull right now so this post will be choppy and poorly written at best.

1) Personal responsibility keeps popping up- today a priest claimed that it was the parents fault that he raped their kid... yeah... I buy that one.

2) All this constant PC BS has got me really fired up. Last night on Long Island a business man was shot in the face on his own front lawn after investigating suspicious noises. His wife saw the man who did it and gave a description to the police. Her description was printed in the newspaper as "a man 25-35 wearing dark clothing." Notice anything missing that would really help people identify him? Some how his race was dropped from the fairly decent description that the police had received. No reason to include the race in the paper though! I mean that doesn't help narrow down the population at all! This shows how damn scared of everything everyone has become that you cant provide public safety information simply because it includes someones race... bullshit.

3) People that love the environment and forced safety by the government. I hope you realize that when your forced all of your safety features on automobile manufactures back in the 70s and 80s you screwed us on having fuel efficient cars today. Around the world there are thousands of tiny fuel efficient vehicles that would be perfect for our cities. Unfortunately the safety brigade forced all car companies to do things certain ways that make cars significantly heavier and bulkier. The SUV craze grew out of this because it was easier to design a truck that fit the requirements than a station wagon.

So now Japan and Europe want to import their little two seat wonders that get 50 mpg without the need for a costly and wasteful electric but we cant have them because you ruined it for everyone.

I know it is hard to believe, but honestly, if you let the free market go it will take care of these things. Do you think unsafe cars would have sold well? No, and if they did, it is your problem if you bought one without doing the appropriate research. Its your responsibility to be aware of the products you buy. Personal responsibility... (look at that, see how I wrapped it up nicely and tied everything together?)

2006-06-26T15:52:00.000-04:00

The hypocrisy of the current republican view of the world is hilarious. Its great, I love it. Seriously, I find it amazingly entertaining.

Bush today stated that the US will leave when the Iraqis stand up. Makes sense when you first start to think about it, but lets compare it to something else... another issue that rises up every few years- welfare. The Republican view of welfare is that people cannot take personal responsibility until the government gets out of the way. How is this any different? By their logic we need to leave Iraq FIRST then people will begin to take personal responsibility.

Now this all came out because General Casey stated that a troop scale down was possible in the coming months. Bush knew this to be the case but the White House was sitting on it until the mid-late summer so that they could use it going into the fall election cycle. Casey, a career military man, released the plan when it became advisable for the military to do so and the Democrats have jumped all over it. Long story short (too late) General releases troop reduction plan, similar to congressional Democrats plan, Bush tries to recover and digs a deeper hole.

So here is my plan for what Bush should do to try and secure some votes for his fellow Republicans in the fall: Admit it. That's right, admit it. Admit that it is time to bring troops home and say that the Generals have been told that as soon as they can safely bring troops home they should. You don't even have to admit that you were wrong to start, you just have to admit that it is time to bring them home. It won't be bringing troops home that gets you votes, though that will get you some, it will be the fact that you are speaking straight to voters that gets you more.

I want a parade

2006-06-26T14:09:00.000-04:00

So the gay pride parades were this weekend. I have decided that I, as a Straight Irish American Male, need a parade too! Wait... whats that? Every March you say?

Oh you guys mean Shenanigans?

2006-06-21T15:11:00.000-04:00

Wow... just wow. I know I get fired up pretty easily, and by pretty easily I mean easier than most, and by easier than most I mean I should probably live on a deserted island by myself (and then the fucking crabs would be the target of my aggression).

About 10 days ago Congress voted itself a 3300 dollar pay raise, bringing their salary to about 170,000 dollars a year. Now I can hear some of you hollering saying "they didn't vote themselves a pay raise!" and technically you are correct. The did however, vote to not not give themselves a pay raise. That's right, Congress voted on a double negative.

I had very mixed feelings about this non-vote vote. I mostly believe that many people in Congress could be at the top of their fields elsewhere and making more, so therefore they should be paid well. I also somewhat believe that when we are this far in a deficit they should cut back everywhere they can, including their own salaries. Essentially I was indifferent.. until this afternoon. This afternoon the Congressional Republicans defeated a bill that would have raised the minimum wage by $2.10... it would have been the first raise for the minimum wage since 1997. (FYI that raise would bring the standard of living for a family of three TO the poverty line...)

Some facts:
- Adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage is the lowest it has been since 1955
- the claim that a higher minimum wage leads to lower jobs is false; states with higher minimum wages experienced better job growth than states paying only the federal minimum wage.
- 140, 120, 45, 0- The respective percentage increase in price of gas, heating oil, health care, and minimum wage since 1997.

Now some of you are probably wondering as to how I, as a libertarian, can support a minimum wage. Well I wouldn't if other government policies weren't so fatally flawed to make it necessary. If market pressures acted alone it wouldn't be necessary, but because the government has created the welfare state it has artificially driven the market value of low level employment down (if there was no welfare, people making 5.15 an hour would starve to death, you would have no workers and businesses would have to make workers wages rise in order to have a workforce at all).

Shenanigans on you Congress... and not the fun kind of Shenanigans but the kind where we get to hit you with a broom.

2006-06-20T11:03:00.000-04:00

There is one class that is desperately needed in all levels of education that has consistently ignored. That class? Personal Responsibility with a heavy does of Parental Responsibility. Everyone in this country seems to think that the things going on in their life are someone else's fault. Its myspace's fault that I wasn't watching my kid and they lied to me and got into trouble. It is TV and Radio's fault that kids are punks (even though we are letting them watch and listen to things that are for adults). Oh and don't forget those video games! They have ratings just like movies but we will buy your little brat anything they want because we don't pay attention to them and it keeps them quiet while mom does her Pilate's and dad rubs one out in the tool shed.
"OHhh but they arn't raising little Timmy the way we want!" OF COURSE NOT YOU IDIOT. It is not a device to raise your kid. It is a device to entertain ADULTS. You probably wouldn't expect a case of beer to babysit your children very well, why would you expect the radio, or the Internet, or video games to do it well?

So then their kids start selling heroin or shooting up schools and the parents get all pissed at everyone but themselves. So what do they do but sue everyone and try to get new laws passed for the purpose of "protecting" other people's children when it is really just a vain attempt for them to convince themselves that they arnt the terrible people they really are.

This culture has penetrated america to the core. No one wants to do anything for themselves. People want the government to take care of everything and when local and state governments can't then they want the feds to do it. The result is a situation like New Orleans where 5 murders becomes a case where you need the National Guard.

The government isn't taking away our rights, we are giving them to them because we are too lazy to take care of ourselves.

New Orleans still loves fraud.

2006-06-20T08:52:00.000-04:00

Follow up to yesterday:

I consider Nagin's use of the National Guard in New Orleans to be fraud. They are using federal money to combat a crime problem that was there before the storm.

For example, if I lived there in a real crummy house. My house isn't damaged by the storm but it is real crummy still, but I get federal money and fix up my house, that is fraud.

If a crime problem was there before the storm, it is there after the storm, then it isn't the result of the storm.

Mayor Nagin, I am anxiously awaiting your arrest.

On a side note: Why do we care that 5 drug dealers got gunned down?

2006-06-19T12:30:00.000-04:00

Ok make sure you read today's original post below because it is a good one and a departure from my norm.I didnt mean to do two posts today but this has me so damn fired up:
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- Mayor Ray Nagin asked the governor Monday to send National Guard troops and state police to patrol his city after a violent weekend in which five teenagers were shot to death.City leaders convened a special meeting to voice outrage after the killings Saturday in an area near the central business district."If we don't have wind knocking us down, we have shooters knocking us down, and that's unacceptable," said City Council President Oliver Thomas.Detectives knocked on doors Sunday in a search for anyone with information on the killings of five teenagers gunned down in a blaze of semiautomatic gunfire.Police had no new leads to the killers, said police Capt. John Bryson."We're begging citizens -- anyone who may have any information whatsoever to call Crimestoppers," he said.Bryson acknowledged it would be difficult finding witnesses to the killings early Saturday. (Watch cops work the scene on the narrow, blood-stained street -- :40)No motive had been confirmed, but "just the sheer carnage of it, the location of it and the time that it occurred" make drugs or revenge likely candidates, Bryson said.A semiautomatic weapon was used and "multiple, multiple rounds" were fired, authorities have said.The dead were Reggie Dantzler, Iruan Taylor and Marquis Hunter, all 19, Arsenio Hunter, 16; and Warren Simoen, 17, all of New Orleans, John Gagliano, chief investigator for the Orleans Parish coroner, told The Times-Picayune. Gagliano did not answer calls by The Associated Press seeking additional comment Sunday.Bryson said none of the victims had any convictions. Police could comment on whether any of them had any other police record.All were believed to have been killed at the same time. Three were found in a sport utility vehicle rammed against a utility pole and two were on the street nearby. Police said they probably all arrived in the SUV.Along with the city's population, murder and other crimes plummeted for the first months after Hurricane Katrina flooded 80 percent of the city last August. Current estimates vary but the city is believed to have less than half its pre-storm population of about 455,000.However, crime has been creeping up since then. Although the total of 52 murders since Jan. 1 is half the number at this time last year, 35 of them have been since the start of April, more than double the 17 in the first three months.City Council members promised swift action against violence as the city tries to repair itself."The crime issue -- once it begins to surface itself as a centerpiece again, everything else falls out the window," Councilman Oliver Thomas said. "It just dampens all our possibilities and probabilities."Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

So... you want troops? After a murder that was probably drug or gang related? What is your deal? Have you lost the ability to govern your own city? Have you become so dependant on the federal government that you think that a mere homicide is reason for them to intervene?

My solution? Cut them off. Time to grow up New Orleans. You have had 9 months and billions of dollars to get your house in order and you made the decision not to. Well it is time to leave them to their own devices. Either they will rebuild, private industry and kindness will save them, or they will destroy themselves proving that our money should not be wasted there.

It may sound harsh, because it is, but I am SICK of this damn attitude that if you can't easily do something you have to run for help.

Everyone needs a wingman

2006-06-19T09:36:00.000-04:00

The Wing. Sometimes called the Chicken Wing, the Buffalo Wing, or the Hot Wing it is essentially the same thing wherever you order it and whatever you call it. Their variety in name is out done only in their variety of flavors- Hot, Mild, Honey Hot, Garlic Parmesan, Garlic Hot, Insanity, various types of BBQ the list goes on and on.
There is a quest that is on going for many wing connoisseurs. The quest for the perfect wing. We have all had a perfect wing. Right now you can all imagine it I am sure. For some it is a Hot Garlic eaten at a 25 cent wing Tuesday while for others it was the 5th out of a dozen in an appetizer at Ruby Tuesdays, but in reality, that perfect wing isn't about the wing. That perfect wing is an experience. It is the perfect sauce (plenty of flavor and plenty of heat, not just hot for the sake of being hot) followed by good beer and in the company of great friends. Yet after you have that perfect wing, many become focused on having it again. Unfortunately, this simply isn't possible. That perfect wing was not a wing, but a moment; and in trying to reach it again you will miss out on all of the other perfect wings that you may have. The sauce may not be as tasty, and the beer may be a bit warm, but if you are having a good meal with good friends, that perfect wing will always be yours.

No this isn't just some post that is a thinly veiled allegory for life (though it is that) but it is also a post to announce a new website. Today is the official pre-launch of PhillyWingReview.com. The city that hosts the WingBowl and serves wings (along with the sterotypical cheese steak) at every opportunity does not have a reliable source to help you decide where to get your wings. Check out the site which is temporarily housed at: http://phillywingreview.blogspot.com.

Soon the site will officially launch at PhillyWingReview.com.

Lord Xenu calling in reinforcements!

2006-06-15T20:44:00.000-04:00

Well ladies and gentlemen, our great Lord Xenu has issued a decree that he needs reinforcements in his battle against scientology. Forbes' has rated Tom Cruise the most powerful in their annual Celebrity 100 Power List. This list is made by the scientific method of their pay rate in combination with "buzz" about them. Apparently negative buzz makes you more powerful... must be a scientology thing. Now, what I really want to know is that if Tom Cruise is the most powerful, then where the hell does that leave John Travolta? No offense to you Cruise fans out there, but Travolta would fuck Tom Cruise up if put in that situation. I mean, you guys saw Phenomenon right? Travolta could totally make Cruise's head explode into a pile of steaming green goo. Why green, you ask? Oh, you mean, you didnt know? Scientology requires that you get your brain replaced with a bright green orb which they refer to as their personal mother board. This way Lord Xenu can communicate privately to all scientologists across the world (their world stretches only across Beverly Hills).

I'm surprised you didnt know that.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movies/06/15/forbes.100.celebrity.ap/index.html

Most of you should ignore this post

2006-06-15T20:43:00.000-04:00

The following post is something I wrote for another site, that site has become defunked and I want to make sure I save it so here it is:

Modifying your car has long been a mainstay of Americans. From Model Ts to the muscle car revolution to the import craze of the late nineties, many Americans have never been satisfied with their automobiles straight from the dealership. Styling, performance, a desire to be unique, all are reasons why people decided to invest large amounts of money into already expensive investments.
Though many people are engaged in the practice, few are doing it well. Our goal today is to learn how to do it from scratch, starting with how to pick the car to what to do once the car is home. Most of us do not have unlimited funds so the first thing to do is set a budget. For purposes of this project we will set a 15,000 dollar budget for the car and the parts. This does not include labor, which varies widely. Since most people make the mistake initially by buying the wrong car, we will give two comparisons so that you can see where this mistake is made.

A few terms will be used in this article that you may be unfamiliar with. The two most important are horsepower and torque. Horsepower is the amount of power than an engine produces, torque is the amount of force that is produced. The amount of horsepower a car produces is largely meaningless without a high amount of torque to get that power to the wheels and the car moving. Remember horsepower is for show and torque is for go. Torque wins races.

One final note before we start: There are certain things that should NEVER be done to a car. The biggest one that will hurt performance and your wallet is called the "Turbonator" (also goes by names such as Tornado or Spiralmax). They claim to increase horsepower and gas mileage, it has been proven however that THEY DO NOT WORK. Anyone with basic automotive knowledge will tell you this. Please, please, do not go down this road.

Step one: The car

This is the most important part. Certain cars will never be as fast as others. Unfortunately, many make this mistake right off the bat. The cars that I have picked for my example are both from the year 2000, were both priced as having 70,000 miles and the same options, and both are modification friendly, in that that both have many products for them.

The first car that we will use is one of the most popular to young car modifiers. It is popular due to its perceived affordability and reliability. This car is a Honda Civic Si. The Civic is a popular vehicle for many reasons, reliability, initial affordability, ability to hold value (which is a negative when buying used), and gas mileage. Unfortunately many people believe that this is a performance car, pre-2006, it is not. Beginning with 169 horsepower and a measly 111 foot pounds of torque it takes the Civic 7.2 seconds to reach 60 mph (and remember this is the performance Civic). Additionally the Civic is pricey weighing in at a hefty $12,495 according to Kelly Blue Book. This only leaves us 2505 dollars for modifications, a paltry amount from where we are starting power wise.

Our second car is less popular, but mainly because it is largely overlooked. Slightly harder on gas but it makes up for in price and power. The car is a Pontiac Grand Prix GTP. I can hear what you are saying right now, "my mom drives a Grand Prix," maybe so, but she sure as hell does not drive this Grand Prix. The GTP is a wolf in sheep's clothing. With 240 horsepower and 280 foot pounds of torque the GTP is a full half second quicker 0-60 at 6.7 seconds and three quarters of a second faster in the quarter mile. This performance would make one think that the GTP should carry a heftier price. In reality the GTP is much more affordable at $9,625 dollars. This leaves us with $5375 for our mods; over twice the amount available for the Civic.

Some will make the argument that the Civic is a more reliable car and therefore is cheaper than the GTP over the long haul. The Civic's better reliability is most likely a myth, any car that is properly maintained will be just as reliable, additionally the GM Series II 3800 engine, the base of the GTP is arguably one of the most reliable engines ever produced. One more thing to consider is that the GTP is built to be a performance car, it will be able to take the abuse that as a racer you will throw at it, the Civic, though fortified in the Si does not come from this performance car heritage.. The Perceptions of reliability are frequently just that, perceptions.

Remaining money: $2505 for the Civic and $5375 for the GTP.

Step two: Basic Modifications

There are a few things that should be done immediately for any car the first thing is to replace the stock paper air filter, which is highly constricting, with a high flow filter such as a K & N. The filters run about 50 dollars, have little impact on performance, but better quality parts are essential. Next, make sure that oil changes are up to date and you have adequate tires. If you are attempting to put a large amount of horsepower to the road, tires are essential to getting it there.

For good tires, a K & N filter, and an oil change you will probably spend about $450 for the GTP and $400 for the Civic.

Power: Unchanged
Remaining money: $2105 for the Civic and $4925 for the GTP.

Step three: Air, the essence of life

To perform to its fullest a performance car must breathe and the best way to achieve this is through an cold air intake system and a full exhaust system from downpipe to catalytic converter to muffler to tip. It has recently become popular to simply replace the muffler and tip resulting in a loud (obnoxiously in most cases) sound but little performance gain.

Civic:
Some of the most popular and best designed cold air intakes for the Civic are made by AEM. Prices range from 206 dollars and up. The gains for this are minimal giving only 2.8 horsepower and 1.4 ft-lbs torque.
Additionally AEM also offers a full stainless steel exhaust that has demonstrated horsepower gains of two horsepower and between 4 and 6 ft-lbs of torque. This slight gain will cost $699 but because of the stainless steel, you will never need another exhaust again.
The last, and most important part, of your exhaust system that needs to be taken care of is your downpipe. With a DC Sports four into one Header you will see gains of up to 6 horsepower and 3 ft-lbs of torque for $360.

So for $1265 you will experience a gain of up to 10.8 horsepower and 10.4 ft-lbs torque.

GTP:
The cold air intake possibilities for the GTP are extensive. A popular option is the SLP Cold-Air Induction package. This package will gain you up to 10 horsepower for $199. Though there would be a torque increase, because it is not documented it will not be included.
SLP also offers a full stainless steel catback exhaust. You can count on this exhaust gaining you ten horsepower for $549, there will also be a significant torque gain, however, because it is not documented it will not be included.
As for headers, on a otherwise completely stock GTP you can expect to add 18 horsepower and 16 ft-lbs of torque via "The Other Guys" Exhaust Headers for $750. On a car with other performance increases this will be amplified even more.

The total for the GTP in this area is slightly higher than Civic (though you can out do the 10 horsepower and torque that you get for $1265 for $750), the performance gains for the GTP are huge. The total cost of $1498 you will gain a total of 38 horsepower and at minimum (and most likely significantly more, due to the lack of SLP claims) of 16 ft-lbs of torque.

Power: Civic 179.8 horsepower and 121.4 ft-lbs torque
GTP: 278 horsepower and 296 ft-lbs torque
Remaining money: Civic- $840 GTP- $3427

Step four: Turbo or Supercharging

The Civic is a normally aspirated engine, which means that it is not turbo or supercharged. These modifications create huge gains in horsepower. However, the price for this modification is generally in the range of $2,500, so you cannot afford it. In any case the horsepower gains would not get you to equal a GTP.

The GTP comes supercharged from the factory, part of which gives the huge advantages here. Additionally for $65 you can purchase a Pulley Boys supercharger pulley and up your horsepower an additional 25-30. At this point this also dose not matter. Your opposition is bankrupt and you can go forever. It appears, that this race may be over.

Conclusion:
There will be excuses thrown by many in the "import" community. These claims will state that their cars are better in terms of gas mileage perhaps stock, but as soon as you start to modify your car, OR DRIVE IT IN RACES, this gain is eliminated. The claim will be made that they are more reliable as said before this is false due to the fact that reliability is determined by maintenance, additionally performance GTP parts are frequently cheaper than original Honda parts. The claim will be made that insurance is cheaper, but in the four door model this will probably not be much different, and if it is, I am sure that $3427 dollars in savings will make up for it. The claim will be made that the Civic weighs less and therefore will be faster if you have been reading this article you know that the GTP starts off faster and makes more gains in upgrades, weight isn't an issue.

In closing, you can make your Civic fast, in comparison to other Civics or other imports, in comparison to muscle cars, or cars breed in the muscle car spirit, you will never have a car as fast as they are or as can be. Fast and Furious is a movie, ten second cars are few and far between, and unless you plan on replacing the engine your Civic will never be one. The GTP, on the other hand, has true potential to make that journey into the mythical ten second quater mile.

Things I love: Bird Flu

2006-06-14T08:58:00.000-04:00

TGrevolutionaries is back!

How to better celebrate the return than with a resounding endorsement of the bird flu. That's right! That wonderful disease has dropped from the headlines ever since ABC ran its fact-filled docu-drama (another word for NEWS) "Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America." I aim to change that by making bird flu as popular as Paris Hilton at spring break.

I want to be very clear. I love the bird flu. I think it is the best thing to happen since Ted Williams' head was chopped off and frozen (because who knows! maybe it will be easier to re-animate A HEAD rather than a whole person. Bodies will become useless in the future anyway). OK I can hear it now... that this is some how "sick" or "inappropriate" or I am a worse person than a reality show star but I am sure that by the end you will agree with me. So here are my reasons why I think the bird flu is great.

1) It is good for the economy. Some claim that out sourcing is a problem for the American economy, if you are in that camp just wait for the jobs to come screaming back! Once bird flu hits Asia hard think of all the menial labor jobs that Americans will once again have the privilege of doing! I mean since the illegals are taking all of our coveted landscaping and cleaning jobs, at least we can make our own sneakers and answer our Dell call center calls ourselves! Dont forget all those manufacturing jobs that were lost to third world countries!

2) It is good for young people. This one will sound a bit harsh, but it is time for honesty- with the housing market the way it is I will be almost dead before I can buy my first house. Solution? Get lots of homes on to the market quickly with motivated buyers. Method? Bird Flu!
Sure lots of people will die of bird flu, but many of those people will be OLD. The result is that their relatives will have tons of property to unload and the prices for property take a dive! Think of all those barely lived in florida condos up for sale!
Also if you are a recent college grad there will be many positions open!

3) Its great if you like cars. Using the same principle as above, think about all the great, low mileage, used cars that will flood the market!

4) It is good for America! With the World Cup going on we must be accutely aware that we are not the best at everything. However with the bird flu, the EU's socialized medical system will collapse and they will have far more deaths there. The result? Their SOCCER (thats right SOCCER) teams will be cripled and we will walk all over them in the next world cup matches!
5) National security. Do you think that terrorists will get treatment for bird flu? I doubt it.

Wow the bird flu sounds awful. Hopefully it wont turn out all SARs on us and be a big pansy.

Vacation!

2006-03-22T00:08:00.000-05:00

Sorry for being absent folks, I have been on vacation in sunny florida. But now that I am back in misserable PA I will assure you a post tomorrow.

SHENANIGANS!

2006-03-09T14:56:00.000-05:00

So it appears that the company that is buying the ports is going to turn them over to a US entity. My guess of who it will be? HALIBURTON.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/03/09/port.security/index.html

Its coming!

2006-03-07T16:47:00.000-05:00

I promised it and it is coming I swear: protectionism and the EU! Today's much anticipated article that will probably bore you to death! It is coming!

Well, we are fucked.

2006-03-06T21:26:00.000-05:00

If my readers are as lazy as I believe they are, then the majority of you will not click the link above. Well if you do, it will take you to an article that made it all the way to page A08 of the Washinton Post (is that above or below the fold?). What this article will tell you is that the domestic spying is GREATLY larger than anyone has yet to admit.
I was wondering why there were enough NSA agents for everyone in the united states and now i know!

So remember when you make your phone calls there are two NSA agents listening in (one for each of you) so make sure you say hi!

I hope Agent Green reads my blog! I need all the readers I can get!

Tar Heal Terrorism

2006-03-06T17:28:00.000-05:00

I am starting to get the feeling that large numbers of terrorists have severe mental issues. I am not even going to bother talking about insurgents in Iraq or the 9/11 hijackers. Obviously I believe that you have mental issues if you believe that by flying a jet into an office builiding you will be met by 70 virgins in paradise. Now the argument could also be made that you have mental issues if you believe a carpenter 2000 years ago turned water into wine, so that is why I am not going to go down that path.

Instead I am talking about this:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/03/06/unc.crash.ap/index.html
You have to be freaking kidding me. This nut thought that by running his SUV (take note that he was driving the most American of all American cars... it could only have been more American if he was driving a Corvette) through a crowd of UNC students. Why did he do it? Apparently to "avenge the deaths of muslims around the world." Wow... just wow. You are taking your revenge on all of those evil UNC students. Unless you are a Duke fan, I don't think you have the right to accuse UNC students of being evil. Back to the topic at hand, but I think guy just must be a wack-job. How does running over a bunch of students do Allah's work? Unless they were wearing pink shirts with their collars popped, then they deserved it and you were doing the work of every God there is.

2006-03-04T22:00:00.000-05:00

So I open this weeks issue of The Economist that I got in the mail today and turn to page 56 and what do I see but an article titled "Arabian Dreams- The emirate has too much to lose by being a security risk."
Am I good or what?

I dont have anything to say but I am talking anyway

2006-03-02T15:07:00.000-05:00

You know it is a slow news day when the top story on CNN.COM is about something that took place in Allentown and the other is about Condoleezza Rice's work out routine. So basically a whole lot of nothing is going on.

Some people would be defeated and not write about anything. I unfortunately am not one of those people. I must write about something. So the port deal it is. It comes down to this- get over it. The ports are not secure now, they wont be for years, and having a Dubai run them won't change things. They will still be the same employees and the same ships. If anything they will have more to prove and more to lose through an attack and they will run things better. I am done with this and everyone else should be too.

Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!

2006-03-01T11:41:00.000-05:00

Anderson Cooper, the rising star of the CNN network, and American news in general, has taken flack recently for his emotional reporting style. I disagree with much of the criticism, though I do think that CNN exploits Cooper's emotional nature for ratings. I have an issue with Cooper in his recent post on his 360 Blog. Mr. Cooper said:

"Someone asked whether my heart bleeds every time I cover one human tragedy after another. The answer is yes. I lay awake many nights trying to find answers to seemingly intractable questions -- Why have we become so cruel to ourselves? What makes us revert to our basic "animal" instincts of killing our own without guilt or remorse? Why, in the 21st century, are so many of us living like our medieval ancestors?"

Anderson, I will tell you. Humans are fundamentally animals. Period. That is it. We can romanticize ourselves so much, our ability to get to the moon, to have a world wide connection of computers, of civil and political freedom, but when pushed to our fundamental state of being hungry and cold, we are animals. Our intelligence, though it should be an asset, is our greatest weakness. Animals do not discriminate on race, or orientation, or religion. Animals do not commit genocide. Our evolution from Animals into a higher form has allowed us to achieve great things, but more over, it has just made us more efficient killing machines. In our society we do not see ourselves as animals but given the proper trigger we could all revert to that state. It is not that our actions would make us more like them or less like them, we are them, we simply are hiding it under our BMWs and Polo shirts (this is not a criticism of you, I am doing this as well). In the west we take out this animal aggression in socially acceptable ways- football, "pack" activities like burning man - but without this release we are consistently on the brink of reverting to our animal nature.

That said we are evolving every hour of every day. The human genetic pool may not be evolving at a fast rate but our knowledge is. These big powerful brains that get us into trouble also have the amazing ability to get us out of trouble. We may be animals but lets do something about it. Animals may not commit genocide, but they also don't help animals on the other side of earth.

Take a look at Anderson Coopers blog post from today. Help if you can.

This is a public service announcement

2006-02-28T11:05:00.000-05:00

As you can see my writing has plummeted recently. It has been 20 days since my last post and it isn't that there has been nothing happening in the world, some pretty cool things have been happening, it is simply that I have not been inspired. Misery was my muse.
Everyday I would wake up dreading going to work and every day I would come home more tired than one should be for a ten hour day. But I did, and for some reason that horrid situation made me want to post. Probably because it was my only release, possibly because I spent hours in front of a computer every day I thought that I might as well do something that I thought was worth while and productive. I don't know but that situation made me post. Now three weeks out of it and it has been three weeks since my last post, longer since my last meaningful one. I am out of that situation but my muse is back, I have no idea what it is now, it is not misery that is certain. It came back through song, through a song in particular- Smart Went Crazy by Atmosphere. I heard this one for the first time about 3 weeks ago... odd. But something clicked with it this morning. So maybe music is my muse. This was the case throughout college, I made a sound track for every paper I wrote. So music it may be, maybe something else will show its face as the true source, but for now, music it is.
I am not surprised by my difficulties, I was not being true to myself. I was hiding who I really was because I thought that is what I was supposed to do.

I am Smenis
Politics and cars are all that is necessary to make the world go round.
I love the Eagles and think that everyone from Dallas is a pansy.
I love loud music.
I think that the 4th generation Camaro is the best car ever produced.
Coors Light and Level Vodka are my drinks of choice (throw some sobe in there too)
I like horses and guns.
Futurama is one of the funniest shows ever.
Man on Fire and Black Hawk Down are the worlds greatest movies.
I love this country, I love my family, I love my girlfriend, and I love myself.

I forgot all of this, but this is who I am. As Jay-Z says:

"No matter where you go, you are what you are player
And you can try to change but that's just the top layer
Man, you was who you was 'fore you got here"

I am who I am and I can't ignore that.in the steps I take from here forward. The next step is employment. I will certainly let you know when that has been solved but in the mean time I will be posting (if anyone wants to give me a job doing something cool, let me know, I can lock it up). I am not going to let it fall by the way side again, and if I do, please call me on it.

In the next few days I will be introducing a new feature which may or may not take off. I want this to become a much more interactive place. I will be going back to my traditional political posts and am well aware that my readers really have very varied views and would like to solicit more opinions. If you would like to see a place where true respectful debate can occur, stick around.

My Federal Budget

2006-02-08T10:50:00.000-05:00

In order to stay as true to the constitution as possible I have written the following federal budget.

The following programs are cut:
ALL OF THEM
The following programs are to be assigned and funded by the states:
ALL OF THEM

Philly, the best city on earth for a reason

2006-02-06T15:02:00.000-05:00

On Cartoonagate:

"This is the kind of work that newspapers are in business to do," Bennett told the AP. "We're running this in order to give people a perspective of what the controversy's about, not to titillate, and we have done that with a whole wide range of images throughout our history...You run it because there's a news reason to run it," Bennett said. "The controversy does not appear to have died down. It's still a news issue."

You cant stop the fire.

2006-02-06T13:13:00.000-05:00

I recieved the following comment last week in regards to my story on the Cartoonagate. It is unedited:

how would printing the pictures make ANYONE any good in anyway?whereas it would REALLY REALLY offend muslims ..me myself i'm a muslim .. & i'm telling u,i don't even want to see these images!it's not about HOW they drew the prophet .. but just the idea!it is so obvious this was done to offend us, otherwise they would've chosen any other million topic that exist in the world to draw & show their talent other than our prophet.so i'm not saying this just because i'm a muslim.. but because i really don't see why the pictures should be out in the open, everywhere!!& maybe in the far future .. those pictures would be displayed in books & have "the prophet Mohammad" written under it ..so just to avoid things like that AND MORE.. those pictures shouldn't be published & should not even see the light of day

I have determined my response. If these photos are not allowed to be printed it brings into question the freedom of the press. Once this is compromised our whole freedom of expression is compromise. This includes freedom of religion. So when it comes down to it, publishing these photos is good for everyone.

As to the comment - I thank you for your input, the more dialogue the better, but you and I both know that the burning of an embassy is not dialogue. Now I notice your IP is from Oman, and your English is solid so that leads me to assume that you come from a wealthy family, most likely associated with oil production or the technology sector. Which leads me to guess that you have had extensive (much more than the average citizen of Oman) exposure to the West. You know that we have no boundries when it comes to commentary. We do not wish to force you to have the boundless commentary if you do not desire it (I do not expect a newpaper in Oman to publish these cartoons) yet I do not want you to force your boundries on me.

Cartoonagate

2006-02-03T15:32:00.000-05:00

So I dont really especially care about the "cartoon crisis" or whatever BS name the press wants to give it. However, I do get upset about this:

CNN has chosen to not show the cartoons out of respect for Islam.

I understand that it is against Islam to depict images of the prophet, BUT that should not stop a non-muslim for doing so. I think that the Muslim community absolutely has the right to be upset, yet the press has a right to print it as well. I think that it is the American's press RESPONSIBILTY to print these images as an academic exercise to allow the American public at large to make this decision.

American press has traditional done two things:
1) Fought rabidly for the freedom of expression
2) Generally avoided offending groups of people by self censorship
This balance has given us a wonderfully free press, but from time to time, one must drop the fear of offending someone in order to accurately report the news in the most informative way possible.

Donate this!

2006-02-01T23:08:00.000-05:00

So the claim was made that personal charitable donations are significantly higher in Europe even though they had a higher tax rate. Unfortunately I have been unable to find any reliable statistics across the board. I wanted to compare Norway to the United States but was unable, because apparently, Europeans don't like to do this research.

SO the most reliable numbers I could find was the percentage of income given in the UK and in the US.

Americans, on average, give 3.5% of their income to charity.
Britons, on average, give .8% of their income to charity.

These numbers are reliable for what they are.

The government of the United States does give less of its GDP at PPP than those in the EU, but one may be able to say that our trade deficit makes up for it.
Taxes have been proven to reduce charitable giving, this has been proven mainly by experience here at home (I believe this is the only way to prove it in that, comparing the US to the EU is like comparing apples to aluminum cans).

So the solution- allow people to reduce their tax burden by the amount they give to charity, up to a certain percentage. For example if you owe the government 100 dollars, and the percentage limit is 35%, if you contribute up to that limit you only have to pay 65 dollars in taxes.

The day after tomorrow

2006-02-01T12:21:00.000-05:00

So a statement I have made may be confusing some of you. In my away message last night, and today, I claimed that I “owned” the State of the Union Address. I did not mean this to imply that I had conquered the address but rather that I truly do own it. It will soon be in my possession and I will be the only holder of all rights. So now you are asking “how did you get the State of the Union Address?” Well obviously I bought it on Ebay from a seller named FuturePresOfTexas at about 10 last night. I know this guy is legit because he has a very high seller rating. First he sold the Texas Rangers! That’s right! A whole baseball team! It looks like he also sold the rights of the American people! OHHH ok lots of setup for a really stupid joke I know.

So my assault on the Right is done, time to take on the Left. The venerable institution that is the Village Voice has published their rebuttal to the State of the Union, and may I say, [heavy sarcasm] BRAVO! Wow, you guys hit the criticism right on the head! Saying that he is the son of a former President and that is the only reason we are listening to him- FANTASTIC. You guys (and gals, how dare I be sexist when speaking of the Village Voice) are so amazingly skillful at reporting the story and offering helpful solutions to the Left’s difficulties in conquering the Right. [/heavy sarcasm] I hope that it is clear to you that your constant “my daddy is a Republican and I hate him so I hate Democrats” bitching is getting you and your cause no where. I am not criticizing the Voice for its agenda (though I find it troubling that something that pretends to be a legitimate news outlet that is OWNED BY THE NEW YORK TIMES has a blatant political preference) but I am criticizing it for lacking the ability to communicate its agenda. I have yet to read a Voice article that is not a tantrum about how evil the Right is and how stupid Americans are. I understand, things suck right now if you are on the left (therefore I think things suck pretty much 50% of the time) and you are getting fed up by it, however, there are much more productive ways to achieve what needs to be achieved. Here is a quick lesson:

Method one (the Village Voice’s current method):
OMG Pres. (fake pres cuz he stoled the election) Bush totally suxorz and is only there cause his daddy was all like “run for da pres my son.” We should like totally beat him next time.

Method two (my suggested method):
Though the President appears to be making a move to the center in order to attempt to secure 2006 for the Republicans, one must note that his ethanol plan is, most likely, too little too late. Without a major commitment from both sides this plan will never get off the ground and will never make a difference. We must say, however, that we encourage those on the Left to participate with the President in this plan. Let us put party politics aside and make ethanol a priority so that we can finally make a substantial gain in cleaning up our planet. As for the effect this will have on the midterm elections? Perhaps it is time we run our own campaign rather than being reactionaries to the issues that the Right presents.

This may not be perfect, but I think it may accomplish a tad bit more than is being accomplished now. Maybe the Village Voice should log on to do some online shopping too. I hear Amazon is offering a “buy a clue and get one free” deal.

2006-01-31T23:18:00.000-05:00

So the Democratic Response was such a sack of crap. Ok I understand why you selected Kaine but he sucked. I know he isn't up for election in 06 so you are not risking anything there, and I know that he won't run for pres in 08 so he isn't throwing himself to the slaughter, but come on, if you are going to deliver the same tired old message please try and do it without stumbling over the words.

Dems, PLEASE PLEASE it is time to learn that you need to make your own statement rather than just criticizing the Right.

The State of the Union- After

2006-01-31T22:10:00.000-05:00

ETHANOL! hells yeah, hit it right on the head, and remember, you heard it here first.

Technology! you got it!

Nothing else I predicted really, however, there was one moment that I, as a political science nerd, found very humours. Bush reintroduced the line item veto (which the supreme court found unconstitutional) to a standing ovation from the Republicans who opposed it in the 90s and to no applause from the Democrats who backed it in the 90s.

I am watching Tim Kane from Virginia right now, will have something on this jerk later.

The State of the Union- Before

2006-01-31T20:00:00.000-05:00

So I am going to do before and after posts on the State of the Union. Here is what I expect:

Major policy shifts- in energy (MASSIVE ethanol subsidies), domestic security(defense of wire taps but introduction of a kinder gentler patriot act), and Iraq(bring upwards of 50k home).

Focus on technology, gov sponsored get online programs

The goal will be to take away as much of an edge that the dems could possibly have in 2006

Go Corporate America!

2006-01-30T23:00:00.000-05:00

Below is my round-up of how great I think corporate America is.

Complaints are running rampant, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/01/26/BL2006012600577.html, that Google is bowing to the Chinese demands by removing blog and mail services in China. Obviously I wish that Google could provide all the services it provides in the United States to those in less free countries, however, I believe that Google has done the right thing. They had two options in this situation, they could play by China's rules, or not play at all.

From a business point of view, obviously the best decision is to play by the rules, but from a vision of bringing democracy to China, it is also a good decision.

Any American influence, however small, brings ever more light to the Chinese people. Google must play by Chinese rules because the Chinese government could care less if Google was there or not. Google is only going to cause problems for China, so them allowing them to arrive at all is a step in the right direction.

Exxon-Mobile! Wahoo! Profits for everyone! 36.1 BILLION DOLLARS! I personally find this to be an wonderful thing. I can hear the gasps from here but I am 100% serious. Why should they not be allowed to make that much in profits? Why is that a bad thing? We are participants in something called "the free market." This so called "free market" means that people can sell their goods for any price they want and we can choose to buy their goods. If we do not choose to buy their goods, then they will readjust their prices. Now if they decide to charge $2.35 for their good (including government taxes) and people decide to buy it, then those that choose to buy it are to blame. From time to time, prices do go hire than the market will bear, for example, when they got closer to $3, the market started to not bear the prices. So they made a ton of money, more than a ton, like a gazillion tons, but that is their deal and if they can pull it off only we are to blame.

Iran, I run, I duck and cover

2006-01-16T19:23:00.000-05:00

Iran has become a mythical beast of sorts. They are legitimately scary in that they are a fundamentalist nation that wants to wipe Israel and the United States off the map, they are legitimately nuts when they say the Holocaust did not happen; but the fear of their possession of a nuclear weapon is somewhat exaggerated. A number of factors must be taken into account to come to this result, but once taken into account, this is the obvious conclusion.
One of the most looked over factors is that Iran is a State. They are not a lose collection of tribes and warlords (like the Taliban) they are not a terrorist organization. It is a State. States, no matter how much of jerks they may be, generally do not cavalierly launch nuclear weapons. Though they may want to destroy the "Zionists" doing so at the risk of one's own State is foolish and illogical, even for a State that is commonly seen as foolish and illogical. Iran may be in the hunt for the bomb, but they are not in the hunt for a bomb. This is Iran pursuing a long term national security (or aggressiveness) campaign. This is not a flash in the pan, put one nuke in Israel or DC, and that should not be our concern with the program.

The argument has been made that it should be because Iran does not have the delivery capabilities of the Soviets. But here is a little secret- for a price, everyone in the world, including you and I, have the delivery capabilities of the Soviets. The porousness of the former Soviet bloc is also proof that this is not a flash in the pan operation. If it was, a warhead could be bought much more quickly, quietly and cheaply from the former Soviet military (this is not to say that Iran has not done this, they may have, but the course they are pursuing shows that possession of a singular weapon is not the end of the road).

More dangerous than Iran is Pakistan. This is a country that is a nuclear power, with an enemy across the boarder (India) and that is, as a friend put it, "only one car bomb away from a fundamentalist government." I want you to imagine a map for a moment. First think of this chunk of the middle east, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan. Now think of the stable governments in that group. There is only one, Iran. Iraq doesn't have a government, Afghanistan could collapse with some force, and Pakistan, as said before is a crap shoot. Right now, US troops are the cohesive force in the region. The risk here is the creation of a Fundamentalist Bloc (to be clear, this would most certainly not INITIALLY contain all Islamic Nations, for example, Jordan, Egypt and other Moderate and Modern States would not be entwined in this grouping. Overtime, however, it may be more likely than not that fundamentalist organizations in these States become more brazen and come to power. This is the real threat to the region, not a nuclear Iran, or a nuclear Middle East, but instead, a Middle East led by a single ideology of removing Israel from the map.

So where do we go, what do we do?
1) Take a measured approach in preventing Iran from going nuclear. The slower the process is for them the more likely it will be that a non-extremist will be in power when the finally get the technology (which is inevitable in reality).
2) Stabilize Afghanistan and Iraq (Duh!)
3) Encourage democratic reforms in Pakistan even if they don't 100% fit our interests
4) Encourage the formation of a Palestinian State, to take that issue off the table.
5) Create economic reform and growth in the region in a sector other than energy.

It seems like a lot but in reality it is. It is a ton of work and long term initiatives and maybe we will get there. Hopefully we give it a shot.

Pave it all

2006-01-12T10:26:00.000-05:00

In a stunning announcement today the State of California has banned plants. Thats right, California has made the decision to ban plants today after it was discovered that plants are large generators of Methane, a greenhouse gas.
Members of the Sierra Club applauded the decision saying "finally we will be taking a stand against the second biggest contributor to global warming, plants." The Sierra Club is calling on the agricultural industry to start producing more hybrid and electric plants. "Without these reforms blood will be on the hands of the agricultural industry and Mother Nature herself for creating this situation."
A large tree was unavailable for comment today.

Scientists: Plants linked to global warming

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- German scientists have discovered a new source of methane, a greenhouse gas that is second only to carbon dioxide in its impact on climate change.
The culprits are plants.
They produce about 10 to 30 percent of the annual methane found in the atmosphere, according to researchers at the Max-Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany.
The scientists measured the amount of methane released by plants in controlled experiments. They found it increases with rising temperatures and exposure to sunlight.
"Significant methane emissions from both intact plants and detached leaves were observed in the laboratory and in the field," Dr Frank Keppler and his team said in a report in the journal Nature.
Methane, which is produced by city rubbish dumps, coal mining, flatulent animals, rice cultivation and peat bogs, is one of the most potent greenhouse gases in terms of its ability to trap heat.
Concentrations of the gas in the atmosphere have almost tripled in the last 150 years. About 600 million tonnes worldwide are produced annually.
The scientists said their finding is important for understanding the link between global warming and a rise in greenhouse gases.
It could also have implications for the Kyoto Protocol, which calls for developed countries to cut their emissions of greenhouse gases by 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12.
Keppler and his colleagues discovered that living plants emit 10 to 100 times more methane than dead plants.
Scientists had previously thought that plants could only emit methane in the absence of oxygen.
David Lowe, of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in New Zealand, said the findings are startling and controversial.
"Keppler and colleagues' finding helps to account for observations from space of incredibly large plumes of methane above tropical forests," he said in a commentary on the research.
But the study also poses questions, such as how such a potentially large source of methane could have been overlooked and how plants produced it.
"There will be a lively scramble among researchers for the answers to these and other questions," Lowe added.

I'm a jerk

2006-01-10T21:22:00.000-05:00

I lied. I am a jerk. I said that I was going to post yesterday. I didn't. Let the public stoning begin but don't do it too long or I will get upset and you won't get a post today either.

Democrats, I think you are doing something unadvisable. I don't mean the Democrats in Congress I mean you everyday Democrats, especially you blogging ones. You are counting your chickens before they hatch. You are all thinking that Delay taking a step back is a huge victory for you. Well you are all wrong. Delay stepping down is a HUGE victory for the Republicans.

When you are done cleaning out your undies I will continue.

1) Any scandal that comes up may only bring down Republicans but when it comes to election time, voters do not discriminate between parties. Incumbents are incumbents and all are corrupt in their view. In that case everyone can be a loser but this won't hurt the Republicans.

2) This will bring new, young (relatively speaking), enthusiastic people into the leadership of the party. The result is that the Republicans will have new faces, which the public will be naturally more appealing to the public. On the other hand the Democrats have stale leadership in congress that isn't going to win them any new fans.

This may not seem like a big deal but this will be a huge advantage in 06. This attacks that naturally would have been launched on all Republicans for Delay's actions are made null and void. This action also protects current seats from challengers in the primaries. Overall they have offset and removed many arguments that could be used against them in 06. "We have done something about the corruption in congress. We have changed leadership and look to take us in a new direction. What have the Democrats done?"

This may not seem like much of an argument to you and I, but in a skillfully crafted campaign this could play very well to anyone and everyone. I see a growing arrogance in the Democratic party that is very very worrying to me. Yes Republicans will go down, yes the President is unpopular, but that doesn't win elections. You win elections by saying something new.

2006-01-09T00:06:00.000-05:00

Upcoming posts:
Monday- Why Delay resigning is good for republicans in 06 and 08, and how more going down in scandals will also be beneficial to them
Later this week- Google Video, Google Pack, what it means for the internet, microsoft, and you.

But to keep you entertained until then:

FORT SUMNER, New Mexico (AP) -- A mouse got its revenge against a homeowner who tried to dispose of it in a pile of burning leaves. The blazing creature ran back to the man's house and set it on fire.

Luciano Mares, 81, of Fort Sumner said he caught the mouse inside his house and wanted to get rid of it.

"I had some leaves burning outside, so I threw it in the fire, and the mouse was on fire and ran back at the house," Mares said from a motel room Saturday.

Village Fire Chief Juan Chavez said the burning mouse ran to just beneath a window, and the flames spread up from there and throughout the house.

No was hurt inside, but the home and everything in it was destroyed.

Unseasonably dry and windy conditions have charred more than 53,000 acres and destroyed 10 homes in southeastern New Mexico in recent weeks.

"I've seen numerous house fires," village Fire Department Capt. Jim Lyssy said, "but nothing as unique as this one."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/08/mouse.fire.ap/index.html

Ridiculous item of the week:

2006-01-06T00:15:00.000-05:00

TORONTO, Ontario (Reuters) -- Giving homeless alcoholics a regular supply of booze may improve their health and their behavior, the Canadian Medical Association Journal said in a study published on Tuesday.

Seventeen homeless adults, all with long and chronic histories of alcohol abuse, were allowed up to 15 glasses of wine or sherry a day -- a glass an hour from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. -- in the Ottawa-based program, which started in 2002 and is continuing.

After an average of 16 months, the number of times participants got in trouble with the law had fallen 51 percent from the three years before they joined the program, and hospital emergency room visits were down 36 percent.

"Once we give a 'small amount' of alcohol and stabilize the addiction, we are able to provide health services that lead to a reduction in the unnecessary health services they were getting before," said Dr. Jeff Turnbull, one of the authors of the report.

"The alcohol gets them in, builds the trust and then we have the opportunity to treat other medical diseases... It's about improving the quality of life."

Do I even have to get into how freaking stupid this study is? 17, great sample size. Oh and you are trying to help them get more medical services so you just feed their addiction... GREAT... I am sorry but Canadians just really rub me the wrong way sometimes.

At 2:14 a.m. August 29th, Google becomes self-aware

2006-01-04T18:11:00.000-05:00

The Terminator: The Skynet Funding Bill is passed. The system goes on-line August 4th, 1997. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.
Sarah Connor: And Skynet fights back.

Chances are they are reading this right now. What I really should say is that chances are it is reading this right now. What is it? It is a computer program or computer or set of programs, (however it is defined I am not 100% sure) that roams the internet, updating itself to new links, pages, images, phone numbers, satellite images, scholarly articles, news, blogs, items for sale, classified ad postings, VIN numbers, package tracking, flight information, and anything and everything else that ever hits the internet. It is the first commercially successful stab at artificial intelligence. It is Google and it is slowly yet fundamentally changing the internet, and the future, as we know it. I want to correct myself right away; slowly is not the correct word, it isn’t slow, it is subtle.
I also want to admit to my dependence on Google. I love Google. I love Gmail and will give anyone and everyone an invite. I use Desktop Search which is great but has allowed my own file structure to fall apart. Google maps is amazing. Google news is my default news service and pretty much everything I do on the internet starts there. This blog is no exception, it is run on a Google owned system called Blogger.
So what? So Google has a great business model, it is one of the few dotcoms to really run a profit, it had an amazing IPO, and its stock will probably hit 600 this year and is only slightly overvalued (very little sarcasm here, I really believe that Google is worth almost that much). So what is my freaking deal? (image placeholder)It scares me. Not the organization, not the people, but it. Not the physical Google Bots that roam the web, but instead the idea of Google. The idea of literally compiling all the information in the world, not just knowledge but information, into one place, terrifies me.
They could very easily figure out where I work, the route I take to get there, the gas I use, the type of car I drive, approximately how much I get paid, what websites I frequent, how much time I spend online, the TV shows I watch, medical problems that I research, pictures of me and my friends and family, and that is all without invading my privacy. That is simply from web searches. If they included what Gmail and Desktop search have access to then they have basically my whole life on file.
Yet all of this is still not enough for me to worry about them. It is where they go from here that I worry about.
Rumors have been floating of an upcoming Google PC, I don’t buy them and frankly even with it, I am not concerned about it. A low priced Google PC would simply be a new outlet for advertising, and a different market of advertising (Wal-Mart instead of Wall Street Journal). A Google PC would also be heavily web integrated—possibly with minimal hard storage capacity and instead online storage space? Perhaps a PC “to go” type system… (Nothing but thoughts and speculation) What is coming, I am not sure, I will speculate later, but something big is coming.
Thursday (1/5) marks the launch of the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show, the biggest venue for showing off new products for 2006. From my cursory research Google has some of the most space at the show, comparable to Microsoft (which has a new operating system to show off). So what are they doing there? What products are they showing off? The only answer I have for you is (image placeholder)something, and that something is most likely NOT a PC. Articles have been written in the past two days that speak of the “Google Cube.” The “Cube” is basically a device that attaches to pretty much everything and then wirelessly networks back to your home network and to the internet. The advantage for Google is that they can monitor every webpage, TV show, DVD, video game, CD that you use then advertise to you based on an algorithm determining your likes and dislikes, couple that in with your demographics and they have the most powerful advertising medium EVER. But for consumers to use “The Cube” it must have some value for them. Just giving it away won’t do it, it has to have a purpose for the consumer. If the Cube is more than myth, we should find this out this week.
So why I am afraid of Google? The advertising doesn’t scare me. Them having a “file” on me really isn’t what pushes me over the edge either. It is how far they are planning to go that concerns me. One of the most important rules at Google is “Don’t be evil,” I do not believe that they are evil, but sometimes evil arises from the best intentions. The improvements in the Google AI (artificial intelligence- which scares the shit out of me just on its own, though Google’s is not like scary sci-fi AI), their ever expanding quest for knowledge, and their ballooning services make it very dangerous should someone decide to be evil, or gets there accidentally.

2006-01-03T22:43:00.000-05:00

It appears that the CIA accidently outed some(all) of its Iranian agents. S0 the chances of us invading Iran anytime soon have gone from slim to none. Ignoring the fact that we dont have the troops to do it, now we dont have the intel either, not even bad intel.

The loss of these sources is troubling because we now have a very limited window into Iran when they are apparently starting up their nuke program. Additionally the renewed focus on the hardline is additionally concerning. Now we are pretty much blind as to what is happening during one of Iran's most critical times.

A bunch of nothing

2006-01-03T21:44:00.000-05:00

Jack Abramoff, a former senior Washington lobbyist, is on the verge of going down hardcore and he is going to claw at the edge as he slides over the precipice in a futile attempt to keep himself from going under. So the question is, who is going down with him?

Many have implied that many republicans will be going down with him, and I agree, but the real answer in my opinion is who ISN'T going down with him. The list will be long and diverse. There will be an even mix of Democrats and Republicans and it will be big names on both sides. Many are taking the guess that it will be more Republicans than Democrats due to the Abramoff's close relationship with a number of high ranking Republicans, but I firmly belive that due to the way Washington works, there may be many a Democrat involved.

So where does that leave us? Well no where really. The people that are going down won't do so until after the 06 elections, by the time they are forced from their seats it will be 07, the Presidential elections will be underway, it will be a place holder until the dirt on candidates really starts to come out. This is on the fast track to going no where. A few people will lose their seats, some will lose their shirts, some may go to jail but they will probably all get off with a slap on the wrist.

So the end result will be one or two people going down, and that is about it.

What else do we have for 06?
1) an uneventful congressional election.
2) a push at an impeachment which wont happen
3) a new VP
4) an end to scandals from the bush whitehouse
5) interesting moves in a set up for 08

Blame Canada! OR get blamed by Canada

2005-12-29T22:02:00.000-05:00

So they Canadians have lost it, it seems they dont like shooting deaths too much up there. Toronto has had its 52nd gun death this year. WOW! 52, that is TERRIBLE. I am sorry for the sarcasm, it is terrible and it is twice as many as they had last year, however, they have only had a total of 17 more murders than last year. So one can make the assumption that many of those 52 would have occured anyway, just would have been bloodier, more violent stabbings and beatings. They arn't killing more people. they are just killing more efficently.

So in light of this huge swing in murders the mayor of Toronto blames, who else, but the United States. Apparently nearly 50% of the guns come from the United States. Ok so we are less than half to blame but it is all our fault. Oh also apparently it is our responsibility to stop them at the Canadian border. Well then Canada it is your responsibility to stop drugs from coming into the US.

Here is a real answer, Canadian youths, similar to urban youths here, and well everywhere, are upset because they are poor and marginalized and the "social programs" shall we call them, do not work.

So here is my solution. GET USED TO IT. I am sorry Canada but things are not really what you wish they would be. There is violence and poverty and crime. Do something about that rather than blame.

2005-12-27T23:35:00.000-05:00

So Bill Gates is most likely evil... but goddamn it, you have to forgive a man that makes a product this good. 360 is sick

Twas the Night Before Christmas

2005-12-24T13:21:00.000-05:00

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house
not a creature was stirring except a blogger, and his mouse
All the stories had been researched and written with care
To monitor the politicians and their actions that he found unfair
No one was safe not matter what side
They were all fair game, for he knew they all lied.
Yet they country was not as bad as some people thought
for he knew that no civil war needed to be fought.
He wrote and wrote about failed legislation
and did little to hide his own political aspirations.
Friends talked of great acts of collusion
while he did his best to relieve their delusion.
For he knew there was no great new world order plot
simply dirty politicians trying to line their pockets and buy their yacht.
"But Washington is not invincible," he yelled
"With our support a quality politician can excel!"
So he read and read all he could find
Until finally he was able to make up his mind
"By McCain, Lieberman and Hilary too,
I have found the perfect candidate, its true!"
A man from named Bayh from Indiana
would be perfect for the White House, that piece of Americana.
But that was years away and Christmas is tomorrow
So celebrate with you and yours without any sorrow.For dirty politicians may be in power
but 2008 will be our hour.
Nothing can be done on these holidaysSo Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and all the other cliches.

The Failure of War on Drugs

2005-12-23T20:31:00.000-05:00

I am in no way advocating for legalizing drugs, especially those that I will be mentioning below. However, these events illustrate a very clear negative effect of the war on drugs.

Bolivia's recent elections have been confirmed and Evo Morales has been declared the victor. First I must say that I am always glad when there is a free, fair, and open election in Latin America. Democracy has been slow coming to Latin America, as it has always been in the battle grounds of the Cold War, and any time there is a election there I am please. Yet the results of the election are somewhat stunning and show a disturbing trend taking place in South America. This trend is the increasing movement to fairly hardline socialist states. The root of this problem is is United States itself and a complex system of programs. In no way am I advocating removing these programs because we do have to look out for number one, but we must modify some of them to make them more globally friendly.

The programs facilitating this are the War on Drugs and the vast farm subsidies. Basically what happens is we go into areas in South America where they have no economy and support themselves by growing Coca for the drug trade, we destroy the drugs (rightfully so in my opinion), leaving them with nothing. Their other options are to go back to traditional methods of living (which from our selfish perspective, would be the best) or to grow cash crops for export. Now unfortunately the cash crops they can grow are fairly limited. It is almost impossible to be competitive with an crop that is grown in the US, so that leaves coffee. I spent a number of weeks in Ecuador. I spent an afternoon harvesting coffee; let me tell you it is back breaking work for only a few dollars a day. So here are these people who are dirt poor because we fly over in our Blackhawks every few months and burn their crops to the ground (Though I am sure it is coming across as if I am against this, I really am not). So these people have nothing and it makes it very easy for a charismatic leader that comes from their background come to power. This is exactly what Evo Morales came to power in Bolivia.

So what does his election mean to the US? Well, a lot to be frank. He is most likely going to align Bolivia with Venezuela and Cuba, chances are he will nationalize more private industry, and most importantly the middle class will be forced out of the political system. Though this wont have as disastrous an effect as it is having in Venezuela, due to the fact that Bolivia has a much smaller middle class, the end result is the same in that the long term political stability of Bolivia will be questionable at best.

In other news:

Nancy Pelosi is the freaking devil. Dems, watch yourself, she will drag you down.

2005-12-22T23:22:00.000-05:00

Here is a great article on the Dungy situation. http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051222/SPORTS03/512220478

Lots of stuff

2005-12-22T20:33:00.000-05:00

"Jenn B." left the following message regarding my comments on the NYC transit strike: "FYI-it's illegal for government workers to strike because they're considered a vital government service. Instead they have other ways of negotiating contracts. So really, they should be jailed. I can't say I feel that sorry for them. " Well Jenn B., though this may be the case, you missed my point. First the idea that they are a vital government service is ludicrous. The only vital services are the ones that would result in death and not an inconvenience. For example the police, firefighters are vital services. Unfortunately a union has little other recourse for negotiations when the best deal they are being offered is a 4% pay cut for new hires and a 3% pay raise for current employees. Lets think about that 3% for a bit; the current inflation rate as of today is 2.7% and that shifts and can change day by day, but that 2.7 is pretty standard. So that 3% raise has suddenly become .3%... Still think that isn't worth striking over? The Mayor and the MTA forced the union into this because the Mayor thought he could get a political gain from it. So the strike lasted 3 days and New York is still there, the "terrible results" that Mayor Dickweed predicted didn't happen and once again NYC failed to do it right. Hell when we had the OG of transit strikes earlier this fall did it for 8 days. Now thats a strike I respect!

Now on to today's news.

Rick Santorum has started with the duck and cover routine after placing all of his eggs in one basket in the recent Intelligent Design fight. Santorum has, until today, been affiliated with the Christian Rights Law Center (right like Christians need a law center because its not like we haven't had every President... ever). The Christian Rights Law Center was at the heart of the recent intelligent design fight in The Great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ( great trivia by the way, there are really only 46 states in the United States and 4 Commonwealths!). Santorum is a year off from reelection and is slipping in the polls every day. Santorum said he was pulling out because "Santorum told The Philadelphia Inquirer he was troubled by testimony indicating religion motivated some board members to adopt the policy." What?! Intelligent Design is religiously motivated? You have to be freaking kidding me! I could swear that it was a legitimate scientific theory! Santorum apparently thought that too when he wrote his 2002 Washington post article that said just that.

Apparently Santorum had expressed his displeasure with the law center as they have become involved in this case, but surprise surprise, he stayed on board so he could make the political move AFTER the decision was reached. Potentiality smart move that ended up being stupid.
http://www.forbes.com/business/energy/feeds/ap/2005/12/22/ap2411212.html

On a more serious note I wanted to comment on the death of Tony Dungy's son. Tony Dungy is one of the few men in the NFL who is really respected by pretty much everyone. He is a great guy that has been hit by something terrible. The preview of the Superbowl will be played on Saturday, though it will be extremely different when it is played in February.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/football/nfl/12/22/dungy.son.ap/index.html

I think I threw up in my mouth

2005-12-21T23:11:00.000-05:00

Today my life changed. I have read the absolute worst auto review in the history of mankind. First I have a feeling it may have been written by a 14 yearold. Why do I say that? Probably because it is written poorly AND I really have a feeling that this is the first time this person has driven a car. Secondly, the article is overtly opinionated, something you all know gets my blood boiling. So in honor of how much this has effected me I have decided to institute a new system of THE ANGER METER. Basically I will use this to illustrate how pissed off I am getting.

So now I want you to take a minute and read the article and then come back and join me as I take pleasure in ripping this article to shreds: http://www.cnn.com/2005/AUTOS/carreviews/11/29/honda_fcx/index.html

Done? Ok good. Now I know that many of my readers would either consider themselves "car people" or "environmentalists." This obviously does not cover everyone, but it includes many of you.

So where are we at with this article. First I am approaching it as a car review so lets go at it from that angle.

"The stubby Honda two-door cut through Manhattan traffic like a skateboard. It accelerated smoothly, braked quietly, and-best of all-consumed no gasoline and generated no greenhouse gases."

Ok not withstanding that the skateboarding comment, which fits well with my guess that it was written by a 14 year old, an auto review is not based on the car being good for the environment, it should be based on THE FREAKING CAR.

Anger level: Cut off by 17 yearold in Japanese Car

Ok so the next paragraph is all about more environmental BS and how hydrogen works. So lets move on.

Anger level: Skunked Beer

So now we have a paragraph that is ALMOST a car review but the ignorance still manages to shine through when the writer says "The FCX makes hardly any noise and accelerates smoothly, with none of the gearshifting that you feel in a gas-powered car." So basically you are telling me that gearshifting is a bad feel and you dont want to be able to hear your car? Basically you are saying the two things that help you know what your car is doing, be one with the machine, the road, what you are doing to your equipment, how you are treating your investment, is a bad thing? Well sir I say that you are an idiot.

Anger level: Forced listening to a jam band

Moving forward we come across the claim that the author "felt a decent surge while starting off, though getting to 60 mph takes as long as 13 seconds." Hey Chief, you didn't feel any surge if it took you 13 seconds to get to 60, that surge was you farting from your tofu and starbucks you had for lunch. Oh and its good that you probably dont have any friends because that 80 horsepower motor probably isnt enough for two.

Anger level: Cable out during an Eagles Game

So finally the author decides to end this god awful article but he ads a nice quick little piece of turd in at the end saying "Regardless, it is reassuring to know that the technology is available to free us from dependence on imported oil and asphyxiating ourselves with greenhouse gases. Now if they could just work on that seven-figure sticker price." Oh that and it costs 20 dollars for 190 miles work of fuel... that is a real price savings (or not you morons).

Anger level: Dallas Cowboys win the super bowl.

So here we are at the end of a review of a CAR and we have maybe a paragraph about the car itself. I really dont know what to do with myself right now but I can tell you this: car people, be pissed, you know why to be pissed, this steaming pile is being passed off as an auto review. Environmentalists, be pissed, this steaming pile makes you all look like idiots.

New York say hello to walking

2005-12-20T23:01:00.000-05:00

So NYC in its constant quest to be more like Philly they have decided to have a transit strike. Unfortunately they don't know how to do it right (they are closer to Connecticut, dont be suprised they are screwin up) and it has devolved into a nasty leagal battle with an dick of a mayor creating even more of a mess than there needs to be.

The result is that the transit union is being held in contempt of court and being charged 1 million dollars a day for striking. Good old fashioned American Strike busting. Nothing like trampling the rights of the American working class because what they are doing is inconvient to you.

New York, send me a self addresed stamped envelope and I will send you a dollar and a clue. Is it inconvient? I am sure. Are you losing hundreds of millions of dollars a day? I would not be suprised. Should you bully other people just because you are bigger than them? No.

It is funny I use the word bullies, this is the first word that came to mind when i was thinking of the tactics that Mayor Bloomberg was using and in a press conference today he said

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg lashed out at union leaders for "thuggishly" turning their backs on the city, vowing there would be no further contract negotiations until the strike ends.
"You can't break the law and use that as a negotiating tactic," he said at an afternoon news conference. "This is unconscionable," he added.

There is only one thug here Mr. Mayor and that is you. Oh and nice photo op walking across the bridge this morning. I wonder how long that will last untill you start traveling by motorcade or helicopter? My guess is that the strike will still be going on when you make that decision (so it probably did that on the way home today).

So New Yorkers, I am sorry, but simply because your Mayor is a dick, I think the city is getting what it deserves.

2005-12-20T16:08:00.000-05:00

So although I said earlier that i would probably be posting on certain subjects that may change with this afternoon's development in the NYC transit strike

Remeber, everytime you say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" the terrorists win

2005-12-20T14:44:00.000-05:00

I will probably be writing about this later:
http://www.forbes.com/business/manufacturing/feeds/ap/2005/12/20/ap2405034.html

Bush keeps on slippin slippin slippin into the future

2005-12-20T11:10:00.000-05:00

The Washington Post has a nice article about yesterdays press conference with Bush commenting on the wire taps.

Check it out:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/19/AR2005121901479.html

Lets make a deal

2005-12-19T23:37:00.000-05:00

The ground is shaking in DC with rumblings of another impeachment. This time it is seeming like it may be deserving, though in my opinion, probably not. That said, it doesnt mean that it wont happen.

This whole impeachement thing has gotten out of hand. The Republicans are clearly to blame for creating this situation and impeaching Clinton when he shouldnt have been but at this point I blame the Democrats too. We get it, you hate Bush, 70% of America does too, but just because he is disliked does not mean he should be impeached. The Democrats should be ashamed of themselves, this petty revenge politcs makes me freakin sick.

They must be very careful in approaching this situation, if he deserves to be impeached, get it done and do it right, dont talk the rehtoric and play the game, just do it. This talk just makes you look bad. (weird that it is Boxer that is up to this)

So I am starting a pool if Bush will make it to the end of his term. I am giving 3 to 1 odds. For every dollar you bet, if bush doesnt make it, you get three. This only applies to impeachment and nothing else that can happen, INCLUDING resignation. I am offering 1.5 to 1 odds on resignation.

Yup GW Is being a dick

2005-12-18T21:07:00.000-05:00

So I turn on Fox this evening at 9 pm planning to see the dumbest man on television let me share in his zany adventures for another week. But instead it turned out that the President was on. So I guess this was still the case but it was hardly the Family Guy. Ok we get it. You are the President, you are doing your thing, you had your whirlwind day on Thursday that got you a whole lot of no where so now you have to go to the Nation and spout some BS to try and get people back on your side. I got a little tip for you... YOU ARE NOT RUNNING AGAIN and YOUR LEGACY IS ALREADY SHIT. You are toast big boy, stop interrupting my Sunday night.

Though this is very big in my life it is not the biggest media news of the past few days. The biggest is clearly the departure of Howard Stern from terrestrial radio. Now I am not a huge Stern fan, though I do enjoy him, but his impact cannot be denied by anyone. He has changed the face of media as we know it and shame on the government for forcing him off. Stern may have lost his edge in recent years, but that can only be blamed on the fact that he has been so restrained by the FCC.

Hopefully the new age of radio personalities (Kid Chris) wont be forced off by the bullying of the FCC.

What are they up to?

2005-12-15T22:04:00.000-05:00

The White House is up to something. I mean seriously, what the hell or they doing. They are doing everything that I thought they would never do. He accepted some blame for the war, he wants 3.1 Billion for New Orleans (an extra zero there than I expected), and most amazingly he has let McCain have his way on the torture bill.

Now there are obvious reasons why he did these things, for example even if he vetoed McCain's bill there would have been a veto override and he would have looked like an ass. But why did he do all of these things in the past two days? It all has to do with, surprise surprise, Iraq. The administration was padding the deck for today. They were counting on the election going to hell and wanted some good news on a day that they thought it would be all bad.

Also they know they are about to get nailed on the Patriot Act...

I think that Mitt Romney really maybe the Republican party candidate. Wouldn't that be ironic? A Massachusetts Conservative against Warner, a Virginia Liberal.

Bob Novak says the President knows who it is...

2005-12-15T14:11:00.000-05:00

I say Bob Novak is a jack ass and if anyone knows he does...

Meet the Republican Candidate for President

2005-12-15T09:09:00.000-05:00

Look up Mitt Romney

He is it.

More on this later

Super long book post.

2005-12-13T22:25:00.000-05:00

I’ve been thinking about Howard Dean’s comments about the war last week. For those of you that may not know he said “"The idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is just plain wrong." Not surprising coming from Dean, but interesting none the less. Dean is an interesting character. I personally thought he was never suited to be President and think he played a spoiler role for many more qualified democrats than Kerry. Yet he convinced many people, who he was ultimately simply hurting, that he was the best man for the job. The result is that the party felt bad for him, overestimated his popularity and fund raising capabilities and made him head of the party. Now the Democrats are lead by a man who does not have the party’s best interest in his heart but is instead motivated by his own desire to eventually become President (a similar set of circumstances is leading the Republicans now as well, except that the person causing them harm already is President). Both parties, but especially the Democrats have been hijacked by their extremes, the Republicans were more so for a period of time by the center has fought back and regained a large amount of control. The moderate Democrats have yet to make a stand against those that are acting against their interests.

Dean, however, is a representation of something much bigger, a problem much deeper, than simply the party becoming more extreme. This can be seen in the fact that the congressional delegation (those that should really be controlling the party when there is not a party representative in the White House) cannot keep Dean under control and in line with what will help them get reelected. The Democratic Party structure is crumbling and this will have a very large impact on the way the 08 election is run and its results.

The current reaction of some Democrats to their current state of affairs is interesting and I believe that many are approaching it from a completely incorrect perspective. Democrats are failing to take the first step towards regaining power. They first must admit that the reason they are failing is due to themselves. It isn’t the Republican’s fault, it isn’t “stupid rednecks” fault, it is their own fault. The only thing that can get in the way of your own success is yourself. You cannot blame others for your own short comings. Let us say that the Republicans did rig Ohio in the 2004 election (which I strongly believe they did not). In that case, are the Republicans responsible for cheating? Of course! Are they responsible for the Democrats losing? No! If the Democrats would have run a quality campaign they would still have managed to win. The Democrats’ message simply is not working. The public knows the war is wrong; they used to know the economy was bad (it isn’t anymore and it was never Bush’s fault); they know everything the Democrats are telling them, however, they are not buying the part of the story where the Democrats say they can change things. To be frank, I am not buying that part of the story either. I have yet to hear a convincing argument about how they will change things. Clearly they will approach things differently than the Republicans will but different is not necessarily better. They will still be for big government and irresponsible spending just like Bush

There is a great juncture for the Democrats. It is their choice of which direction they choose to go. It is not a simple choice. The decision will be made if they depending on the result of the 2008 election. Another loss or two like 2000 and 2004 the party will disintegrate. The middle will break and join with moderate republicans to form a truly powerfully third party (except it will become a dominate force, not a third party like we know them now) and the far left will take the remnants of the party, fall by the wayside and will join various other special interest parties (though this may seem to be doom and gloom to those on the left, it is anything but, the movement to these parties will increase overall political competition, additionally if this truly does occur, the converse will be occurring in the Republican party, however this is all driven by the difficulties that the Democrats are having). Though this may seem to be unlikely one must remember that the current static state of the parties is uncommon, to say the least.

This may seem like a lot, and you may very well not believe it but, especially if you are a Democrat, I encourage you to think about it. Realize what is happening to the party by allowing the extremes set the agenda. There are many quality candidates in for 05, encourage them to run! Pick someone that you agree with but who will not turn off the middle. Be Smart and win.

If you build it, they will come

2005-12-07T16:57:00.000-05:00

The blue collar sector of the American economy appears on the verge of another hit thanks to the American Automobile industry. Just weeks after GM announced massive layoffs, Ford Motor Company has taken the similar steps. Current reports show layoffs in the range of 30,000 hourly workers in the United States. Though this is not official this estimate seems to be fairly accurate. The American automakers are hemorrhaging, this is not a slow gradual death, this is screeching tires and flaming exhausts, this is a Pinto being hit by a truck and bursting into flames.

Streamlining production and updating plants will certainly help with cost savings but it will not help to increase sales. Just when the Japanese model appeared to be taking hold in the American motor companies, the game, predictably so, changed and American companies are again dropping the ball. GM has missed the mark ever since appointing Bob Lutz head of the American Motor Group division and Ford has been in trouble for just as long. The key to success are the fundamentals that the American Manufactures started ignoring in 1980s. In my opinion those fundamentals are styling, reliability, and quality. They must all be present in order for a car company to be successful. I have intentionally left one thing out that should draw your eye. Price. Price is not a fundamental with which auto manufactures need concern themselves. I promise I will explain later.

So that leads the discussion to styling, reliability and quality. (Note: I am defining quality and reliability as two different things. Quality refers to the quality of the materials used to build a car, the leather, how quite it is, the stereo etc. Reliability however refers to just that, how reliable a car is.) Reliability is the only one of the three where Ford and GM have made any sort of significant improvement in recent history. If anything was learned from the Japanese model that will remain it is that a crappy car is a crappy car and consumers will see it as such. The old statements such as Found On Road Dead and Guaranteed Malfunction are generally no longer true. However simply having a car that will last as long as something that you pay tens of thousands of dollars for should last is not enough; it also must be a car that people want to buy in the first place. Reliability is a cost of entry, without it, you can’t play the game.
Quality and styling seem to go hand in hand. When was the last time you saw a car with leathers and plastics as nice as those in a comparable Japanese or European car? American cars tend just to look cheap, even when they may be more expensive than their counterparts (price, its getting closer!). Speaking of looks, when was the last time you saw a good looking American car that was not a full-size truck or a Cadillac? The Mustang is the only one that comes to mind but everything else looks like it was drawn on the back of a Wendy’s bag after a hard night of drinking.

So what do they do? Well first step; unfortunately they must continue with the layoffs. Without profitability they will never make a car that is profitable. Make sense? Probably not. BUT they need capital to undertake new projects so profitability is a must. Second they must not take the lead of what is “cool” at the time. The Focus is a perfect example of this. This car was based upon popular Japanese designs and therefore was ultra hot for about two years, but now its sales are plummeting along with its popularity. They must blaze their own path, do their research, determine what people want and go for it. Be unconventional, be exciting. Lastly they must diversify. American car companies are wonderful at doing one thing for a period of time when it seems profitable then moving on to the next. But in that movement phase they get screwed. First muscle cars, then trucks, then SUVs they focused on one of those at a time and were burnt in between. They do those three types better than anyone else and the key is to do them all at the same time. Instead of having 14 SUVs, 5 trucks and a muscle car they should have 6 or 7 of each. If they balance their lines, do it with a flare and do it well, they will be back in the game.

Why Price doesn’t matter.

Price should not be a driving point for the manufactures. Obviously they cannot price exorbitantly but if they prove they have a comparable product they can use comparable pricing. I do not know when American manufactures took over the job of producing low priced cars but it is not a job they are suited for. Other companies (Kia, scion etc.) will always do it better, let them do it and do your own thing. Otherwise you will sink and not swim.

Why not to say you have a bomb and run from the police in an airport.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/07/AR2005120701578.html

Why to be careful BEFORE you start advertising. People do not usually get mad if you don’t do something, they do get mad if you change your mind.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/06/AR2005120601733.html

Being mean never won anyone any friends.

2005-12-01T20:59:00.000-05:00

I wasn't planning on writing another blog on the media today but I was watching last night's Colbert Report rerun and got very upset. His guest, Katrina Van Den Heuvel, a columnist for The Nation. To her credit, she has been a constant victim of attacks from the right, and to her credit she is a smart woman, but I wonder sometimes how a smart woman can be so blinded by partisan views. Her attack on the Bush Administration for its handling of hurricane katrina completely missed the mark simply to take a shot at bush. Van Den Heuvel missed the fact that FEMA was a bloated governmental organization that never was suited for a major disaster being blinded by her hatred for Bush.

FEMA was originally structured to take over the Federal Government in the event of a nuclear attack. It never made the transition to anything else. Was this Bush's fault? Absolutely, he should have led the charge for this transition during the changes that were happening to FEMA post 9/11, HOWEVER, attacking the Bush administration for its incompetence rather than attacking the SYSTEM that was incompetent is fundamentally flawed.

This attack nature makes her no better than when Rush Limbaugh called her names. When will both sides learn that taking the high ground will immediately give them credibility that the other side does not have?

Other stuff:

I have a bunch of new links on the side, check them out. More will be going up in the next few days as well. If you have any sites that you read and think I or my readers would like then let me know.

I am thinking about changing the look and feel of the site. It definitely has the feel I want but I do not know how reader friendly it is. Let me know your opinions.

I will most likely be writing a webpundit article tonight as well. Check over there for an update.

Pants on Fire

2005-11-30T19:57:00.000-05:00

I hate liars. I absolutely hate them. From the White House to the bum on the street I hate every single one. There is, however, one group of liars that I hate far more than the rest. Why do I hate this one group more? Because they have the true power of influence. This group is a small subsection of "news" outlets that bases their coverage not on what is going on, but instead on what their consumers want to hear. I am sure that many of you are immediately are thinking of Fox News and the New York Times, but in reality these sources are completely objective in comparison to one particular "news" source to which I a referring. That source: The Village Voice.

I always knew about The Village Voice, that is I knew of its existence. I also always assumed that it had liberal tendencies. However, I assumed it like I assume the New York Times has liberal tendencies, they are there, everyone knows they are there, but for the most part they behave themselves and stay on the opinion pages. Today I found out how wrong I was. I stumbled across an article via Google News that was titled "George Bush, Meet Reality- President's speech on Iraq strategy conjures a dreamworld." Now while that sets in let me remind you that this is the title of a news article. That's right, a news article that is showing opinion in the title.

The problems that I see here are not that opinion is being expressed, expressing opinion is a wonderfully American thing to do, but expressing that opinion and calling it news, is offensive, wrong and, in my opinion, un-American. I am well aware that saying it is un-American is a very large statement, but I truly believe it. The irresponsibility and selfishness of calling yourself a news outlet but spewing nothing but opinions based on misconstrued facts is appalling.

Would those that read the Village Voice still be against Bush and the war? One could certainly assume so, however that is not my qualm. By providing only opinion and not real news they are doing a disservice to their readers and American politics. Those that are exclusive readers of the Voice would be unable to truly debate an issue and would be restricted to arguing and not the "public discourse" (http://www.villagevoice.com/aboutus/) the Voice seems to espouse. Additionally the Voice never says outright that it is a liberal opinion site and not a news source.

On the other hand sites such as WorldNetDaily (http://www.worldnetdaily.com) and Townhall (http://www.townhall.com) seem to embrace their conservative view points, do not hide them, but in their news sections provide links to news articles by the Associated Press.

The Village Voice is commiting a disservice to its readers and America as a whole and it makes me sick. Opinions are necessary and important, but in a sense, it is more important that larger swaths of America are provided with unbiased news for them to make their own decision.

http://villagevoice.com/blogs/bushbeat/archive/002112.php

http://villagevoice.com/news/0549,ridgeway,70575,2.html

I got a wonderful email from a Canadian in regards to yesterday's Webpundit article I wrote. The email follows below.

Hi Paul,
I don’t think Duke Cunningham pleading guilty to corruption compares to what’s been happening up here.
No Canadian politician – past or present – has been tried in a court of law for any wrong-doing associated with our Adscam. A handful of advertising executives and one slimy government bureaucrat were tried and convicted, but they aren’t running for office. In fact, the Gomery report did not single out any of the men and women seeking office in this upcoming election. And Whether you believe it or not (and I’m not saying I do) – Gomery completely exonerated our current PM Paul Martin of any wrongdoing, and laid it squarely at the feet of our former PM (who is not running.) I have enough faith in our “parliamentary system” that if one of our Members of Parliament or a Cabinet Minister was convicted – or even charged – with corruption, they’d never run again.
All the best,
Chris

My response was that as a product of the Watergate years (though I was born long after, I believe that has influenced American political thought and the political environment of my home in my early childhood) the first thing that comes to my mind is that the Canadian politicians must be better at breaking the law than we are...

2005-11-29T21:46:00.000-05:00

I added a new link at the left. It is a link to http://www.mozilla.com/. Go there and download Firefox, the only web browser you should be using.

"Good Fences Make Good Neighbors."

2005-11-29T21:16:00.000-05:00

Its been a hard day to decide what to cover, there are many important things occurring in the world of politics so I am going to try to be as focused as possible. I will handle the Canadian and Cunningham corruption stories over at http://www.webpundit.net. However, in regard to those stories I must make one comment. Duke Cunningham is a hero. He absolutely is an American hero. He is also a criminal. He deserves to be treated as both. He should be charged and prosecuted, yet always respected for the wonderful things he has done in his life.

President Bush has been touting his guest worker plan that would allow illegal immigrants to work in the United States legally. Unfortunately the cure to solving the problem is unreachable. There is no cure. The United States will never be free of illegal immigrants, nor should we necessarily hope to. The biggest problem with the border situation is not those coming over to steal our jobs (because I don't know about you but I know very few Americans that are jealous they can't be assistant janitors in charge of toilets at Wal Mart) but instead the problem is the others that we know are crossing the border. As reported last week we know that terrorists have been caught at the border, but as we also know, many many more people make it across than are caught. The advantage of the Bush plan is multifold.

1) It is realistic. The impact on the American economy by forcing all illegals to leave would be devastating. Doing so would also be impossible and keeping them out would be even more difficult.

2) It creates a climate of safety and legality. If we allow "illegals" to enter and exit legally, the market for coyotes to assist the illegal transportation of people will diminish, this will result in it being less likely that they will be transporting those people that are out to hurt Americans and not help themselves.

A big aspect of this plan must be a comprehensive and AGGRESSIVE effort by the US government to seal off the border and severely prosecute those that come across illegally. It must be made a federal offense to illegally cross the border with HARSH punishments. The border must be sealed. Fence, wall, troops, however it is to be done, it must be done. There must be specific crossings where movement is allowed and regulated.

Robert Frost most certainly said it best when he said that "Good Fences make Good Neighbors."

I suck

2005-11-28T23:48:00.000-05:00

I appologize for the lack of posts, with the holiday and work I have fallen FAR behind. BUT more are coming, look back over the next few days for an exciting series entitled "I have fallen far behind but more are coming."

It should be a good one.

On a side note I enjoy the lively debate on the side, keep it up. If there is anyone looking for more debate check out the link to lsfun on the left, it is an all purpose message board but often has political threads going as well.

Bush wants to Bomb me

2005-11-22T23:27:00.000-05:00

How far are we willing to go? This isn't a rhetorical question, I am very interested in how far my readers would be willing to go to win this war. How many of our values do we compromise to "win?" (I have win in quotation marks because I do not believe it to be winable in a tradtional sense at this point.) In the most desirable situation, the obvious answer is none. But in reality is that doable?

Another disturbing fact has arisen concerning our conduct in the "war on terra." (does anyone else find it to be a coincidence that terra is another word for earth? hummm I wonder who Bush is really fighting here. Additionally is it me or do these disturbing facts just get more and more disturbing?) It is being reported that the Bush administration proposed bombing the Al-Jazeera headquarters in Qatar. Now this has not been confirmed, and I pray that it will be confirmed as false, however if I was a betting man, which I am, I would put my money on this being the truth. This also calls into question the previous "accidental" bombings of the Al- Jazeera headquaters in Kabul and Baghdad.

Do I believe that this strike was ordered? Unfortunately I must say that I do. I believe that the attacks on the Kabul and Baghdad were intentional as well. We have intentionally attacked news outlets in the past. During the war in Kosovo the United States intentionally bombed the Yugoslavian news network, this was clearly a military target, due to the fact that it was state run and clearly a propaganda wing of the government. Al-Jazeera is a different animal, it is "independent" and is not governmentally affiliated (it is truly independent, though not unbiased.) One cannot justify attacking an independent figure in a war. It is more than likely that the reporting of Al-Jazeera is encouraging terrorist attacks, however, if we attack them what makes us better than a terrorist from attacking CNN? (well not CNN but lets say FoxNews)

The line must be drawn somewhere, I am more than willing to allow for a little give and take durning war, one cannot expect to win by acting like police officers, however there are lines that have been crossed long ago that we should not accept.

In other news:

It has been confirmed that Al Qaeda members have been stopped on the boarder. Unfortunately as we well known many more people get across the boarder than get stopped. So that is good news. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,176216,00.html

Jose Padilla was indicted finally. Chances are he committed some crime, though I have no clue what that crime may be. He was charged with as the New York Times reported "a plot to "murder, kidnap and maim" people overseas." So is he charged with conspiracy? So it is a huge BS charge basically... Good stuff, lets hold this guy in custody as long as we can and then charge him with something insane so we don't have to release him and look like idiots. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/22/politics/22cnd-terror.html?hp

Samsung has been hit hard in recent days. On Friday the Chairman's daughter was killed in a car crash http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200511/200511220024.html and today stocks crashed after Intel and Micron came to a deal to produce flash memory chips. Watch for a couple things: either someone to strike a deal with AMD to do the same AND watch HDTV prices PLUNGE after the holidays so that Samsung can have a good 1st quarter. http://www.newsday.com/business/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-asia-chip-makers,0,5492878.story?coll=sns-ap-business-headlines

This post may not make much sense

2005-11-20T21:37:00.000-05:00

New Face of Terrorism.

The United States faced a terrorist attack today. No one will identify it as such, but that is exactly what it was. A man walked into a Tacoma shopping mall and opened fire shooting at least six. This type of attack has been predicted by the FBI since before 9/11. The theory has been that al Queda would use gunman and suicide bombers to take over a shopping mall, detonating their bombs once the press arrived.

Today the first half of this came true. Why will this not be called a terrorist attack? Because the suspect is a white male in his 20s (at the time of this article, CNN is the only one reporting this, the AP is not). The theories have always involved middle eastern males, this has become the common definition or terrorism. If it does not fit into this rubric, the press considers it crime. Merriam-Webster defines terrorism as "The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating." If this does not meet those specifications, then only something on the scale of 9/11 seems to.

The result of this attack is yet to be seen. My guess is that, because it will not be called a terrorist attack, the effect will be minimal. One effect that I am guessing is a backlash against current gun control laws. The CNN report mentions immediately that the attacker was carrying an "assault rifle." Unfortunately the majority of Americans have no clue what this means. It does not mean it is an automatic weapon, it does not mean a weapon that is by definition more dangerous. Because of the way gun control laws are set up, this weapon is no more dangerous than any other weapon available. The label "assault weapon" was construed to make these weapons seem more deadly and dangerous than they really are.

Mo Money Mo Problems

It is being reported that al-Zarqawi's family has disowned him and may be considering killing him and collecting on the US reward. Additionally, there are some reports circulating that al-Zarqawi was killed in an attack in Mosul today. The government is saying that this is "highly unlikely" which is probably true because they have no freakin clue as to where he is.

Tricky Dick

Members of former Secretary of State Powell's office are reporting that Cheney provided "philosophical guidance" that made it acceptable to torture detainees. Well members of my office are reporting that I am providing "philosophical guidance" suggesting that anyone who gave orders to torture should be strung up by their scrotum (I don't think this will be a problem for anyone in that office, including Condi).

Sky Net

The UN is reporting that in a matter of years non-human devices will out number humans on the Internet, possibly providing an opportunity for minimal thought or intelligence. AWESOME, i can tell that this is going in the right direction. How many more movies have to come out that show how bad of an idea artificial intelligence is?

A lot of random stuff today I know, I don't really have the concentration to focus on one big thing, the Eagles game threw me off. If anyone has any story ideas, lay them on me.
On a side note we have hit a milestone of 500 hits a few days ago, not bad in my opinion! Two and a half weeks and I have 500 hits and over 100 unique visitors! I would love to get to 1000 hits by the end of this week so get the word out and pass the link around.

How to make an A-Bomb, a recipe for disaster.

2005-11-19T18:33:00.000-05:00

CNN.com is reporting on an IAEA report that Iran has obtained an A-bomb recipe. In a shocking turn of events, The Gentlemen Revolutionaries has also obtained that recipe. After much deliberation I have decided that the journalistic qualities of posting that recipe below far outweigh the possible risks of the recipe slipping into the wrong hands. If you are easily shocked, have a heart condition, or are like one of those ladies in old movies that faints too easily then I would suggest not reading any further.

Ok here it comes: How to make an A-Bomb, a recipe for disaster.

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks, 1/2 pound) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated [white] sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups (12-ounce package) Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
1 cup chopped nuts
COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in large mixer bowl. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition; gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.
BAKE in preheated 375-degree [Fahrenheit] oven for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.
PAN COOKIE VARIATION: PREPARE dough as above. Spread into greased 15"x10" jelly-roll pan. Bake in preheated 375-degree [Fahrenheit] oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in pan on wire rack.
FOR HIGH ALTITUDE BAKING (>5,200 feet): INCREASE flour to 2 1/2 cups; add 2 teaspoonfuls water with flour; reduce both granulated sugar and brown sugar to 2/3 cup each. Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit, drop cookies for 8 to 10 minutes and pan cookies for 17 to 19 minutes.

THOSE BASTARDS. Look at their flagrant disregard of United Nations guidelines. Nuts? HOW DARE THEY! Who do they think they are? They know that many people are allergic to nuts but they blatantly disregard the risk.

Alright now that I have that out of my system lets talk about 08. I may be beating a dead horse here, well a dead horse that isn't even out of the gates yet, but I am very concerned about posturing by certain democrats. I am on a mailing list for Evan Bayh, a possible democratic candidate in 2008. For a long period of time the mailings were focused on how the moderates are the key to the election and how Bayh is their man. Recently, however, another group has launched liberals for Bayh. This group should not be called liberals for Bayh but instead should be called "liberals for their own agenda who are looking to hijack Evan Bayh because he is their best opportunity." Democrats PLEASE LISTEN, I have a strong desire for your victory, but I assure you, the quickest way to the destruction of the party would be to allow the liberal wing of it to hijack it once again. The republican nomination will be a moderate, with the Bush wing of the party is so deep in it they will not be able to field a viable candidate. If the Democrats don't play the same game they wont play for another 8 years

This is not a post about the Iraq War

2005-11-17T20:21:00.000-05:00

It really isn't. I mean it will be talking about how American Troops are there. It will be talking about the President's role in putting them there. It will be talking about the House and the Senate and Democrats and Republicans. It will be talking about secret prisons that the Iraqis have started and lastly it will be talking about the shit show that is going on over there. But I SWEAR, this is not a post about the Iraqi war.

No I am posting about congress and how they are doing their damnedest to save their asses. The Republicans in congress have finally realized that being in support of the Bush agenda is the quickest train to no-job town. So they are demanding what is already provided to them in the war powers act. So 3 years ago they ceded the war powers act to the President, let him mess up, and then decided they wanted it back when it was time to run for office... very smart.

The Democrats are going along doing their thing, which to be honest I can still not 100% figure out. They have taken little unified stance other than the war being wrong. We get it. The horse is dead. Try something new.

This is going to play out to be a big nothing in 06, everyone will appropriately cover their assess and that will be that. The 06 issue? Working on that one. I'll throw that up at the next post probably.

New one over at www.webpudit.net check it out

2005-11-17T12:33:00.000-05:00

It has been a busy week but I promise a post tonight

Eat it McNabb

2005-11-15T00:11:00.000-05:00

I am so disgusted with the Eagles. McNabb, stop trying to be a damn hero and go get your surgery, you have ended our season and it is no one's fault but yours. Sit your ass down, get your surgery and look to next year.

Finding myself.

2005-11-14T20:03:00.000-05:00

I often have to reflect on where I stand politically. Who am I? More importantly WHAT am I?

I am socially liberal; I believe that person should be able to do basically whatever they want as long as it doesnt hurt anyone else.

I am fiscally conservative; I believe in low taxes, small government, and basically no federal spending.

I may not be a Democrat, they cant keep spending and taxes undercontrol. I am not a Republican, they cant keep spending and taxes undercontrol and are against personal freedom.

So lets move to the third parties:
Green- I think not, hell I used to drive a Camaro, and at the height of the gas issues I bought a car that is even less efficent.
Socialist- HA do I even need to dignify this? Now where is my check.
Prohibition Party- Wow these get even more absurd and I am even skipping the ones that are too far out there.

So that leaves me with one realistic party. Am I... a libertarian? Yes, sort of. The tough question is does one allign themself with a political party that is bound to not win the big one? (As a Philly sports fan the answer would seem to be an obvious yes) Or do you allign yourself with a party that can win and try to change it from the inside? There is no answer and if anyone has one, please let me know and I will post it up.

Couple of other things.

John McCain was just on the Daily Show being real good and avoiding questions about 2008 like a fox.
Here is a fun link about political parties http://www.politics1.com/parties.htm
And here is a fun (to me but probably not to anyone else) quiz about what political ideology you have: http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html

I am going to be posting more over at www.webpundit.net My posting here may slack a bit but I am going to try my hardest not to if there is ever not a post here just check over at Web Pundit and chance are there is something in my section over there. If I do slack it will probably go from 6 days a week here down to 4.

Terrorism is bad umkay.

2005-11-13T20:52:00.000-05:00

As we all know terrorism is bad and in reading the following you must keep in mind that I am in no way condoning terrorism.

So with a disclaimer like that you must be wondering where I am going with this so here it is: the attack in Jordan will have positive results worldwide. For the first time, terrorism is truly a world problem that all recognize as such. The attacks in Jordan will have far reaching implications; support for terrorists will begin to dry up and the security services will treat it as a threat and will not let terrorists operate with impunity.
The reaction of the Jordanian public is predictable but still encouraging. There is little question that the public tide is swinging against violence in the Middle East.

Perhaps more important though is the attack itself. It also signals a number of changes in the current situation. First it shows that the al-Zawahri has the ability to attack outside of Iraq. Second it shows that he has the desire to attack outside of Iraq. He is expanding his goals beyond Iraq and American troops. More than likely this expansion is a sign of desperation but regardless it will probably(hopefully) be his downfall.

On a side note I am now also writing for webpundit.net. I am very excited about it, so check out www.webpundit.net, I should be up a few times a week over there and would love if everyone checks it out.

YARRRRRRRR we no longer be the coolest kids on the block

2005-11-11T23:38:00.000-05:00

As we found out a few days ago pirates are alive and kicking and now I find out that something even cooler. Not only are there pirates but there are PIRATE HUNTERS. Thats right, people who's profession it is to HUNT PIRATES. Ok, so pirates are pretty cool but if you are going to hunt something down you have to be cooler than that thing. For example, people hunt deer. People are clearly cooler than deer. So to hunt pirates you MUST be cooler than pirates.

So these pirate hunters are totally like taunting the pirates via cnn.com. Now my dreams have come true: Pirates- Something cooler than pirates probably involving guns- and CNN.COM

S0 these pirates are hangin out off the coast of Somalia in a "mysterious mothership" that launches speed boats that go attack ships that are going by, pretty cool.

Now pirate hunters, I kinda think they may be like the croc hunter. So they get on the ship and use a long poll with a string and get it around the pirates necks. The pirates then spin around and shit but just wear themselves out and when they stop a bunch of australians jump on them and tape their mouths shut with duct tape.

Yup, thats cool.

Yup, I wanna be a pirate hunter.

Let me dust off my crystal ball

2005-11-10T18:32:00.000-05:00

As is painfully obvious the Bush Administration has absolutely lost its shit. They were doing a good job keeping things together for a while. You may not like them but you have to admit that they were handling things reasonably well (or at least managing not to get caught doing what they were doing). However it seems that the last few weeks have been unforgiving. First Skeletor pulled her bid for the Supreme Court, then you have some indictments, possible use of illegal weapons in Iraq (which I dont buy by the way and even if used in the way it was described it is not a war crime so I don't get why it even matters) and most recently Tuesday's election results.

So now the question arises is who is going to benefit from all the issues that the administration is facing. The Answer: The Republican party.

Ill wait for everyone to catch their breath.

Ok this is how it is going to play out, and it is connected to yesterday's post.

The Republicans get their ass handed to them in 06 and two things happen: 1) Moderates take over the Republican party because they finally get pissed enough and their shit together--- 2) The far left will take over the democratic party. Instead of seeing that they won because people were sick of the way things were going they will think that people finally realized that they were right (false, people don't think that they just think that they are something different.

So going into 08 you have a well organized moderate Republican base with McCain at the helm (not necessarily as the candidate, though I wouldn't be surprised) but at least as the figurehead. On the other side the only viable candidates (Warner and Bayh) get their asses handed to them by the highly organized left wing of the party.

So here we are in November 08 with McCain, or a McCain esq. Candidate, against a extremely liberal candidate. It will make 96 look close.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

2005-11-09T21:54:00.000-05:00

Over the past 50 years great leaps and bounds have been made in the field of science. We have made it to the moon, invented computers and the internet, introduced fuel injection on cars, and decoded the human genome among a myriad of other achievements. Yet the fine Citizens of Kansas have decided that they don't want to be involved in the future evolutions of science (get what I'm doing there).

Is it ludicrous that in this day in age someone could believe anything other evolution? Of course it is! Should we all think that they are idiots and ridicule them? Of course we should!

Take a wild guess what is coming next though- it is their right. If they want to be ignorant douche bags and let their children stupid assholes then that is their choice. It is our right to criticize them but it is not our right to prevent them from doing what they choose to do.

Enter election day in PA and Dover School District and the School Board election. The Dover School Board too the same stance as the fine State of Kansas and thought that intelligent design was a wonderful idea. Apparently, no one else thought so. All eight members of the school board were voted out in yesterday's election.

This is why it is their right. The voters can speak, the voters in Pennsylvania have and the voters in Kansas can as well.

The Risk of 06:

With 2005 out of the way everyone is looking to the mid-terms in 06. All are already calling on major victories for the Dems, which I agree with 100%. One must account for the risk that arises with a Democratic sweep in 06. The Dems must be VERY careful not to over promise. If those that are running in 06 promise to right all wrongs that Bush has and will commit. If these promises are made and are not fulfilled (which is the probably case with Bush still in the White House) then there will be many disillusioned voters in 08. The result will be that the middle, who thought the Dems could save them from Bush, will think that they were lied to by the Dems and not show up to vote in 08. The scenario will come down to who can motivate their base more and will be another unpleasant election.
The solution for the Dems is to promise what they can do, nothing. Don't promise anything, make Bush the bad guy and begin the set up for 08.

One last thing: Democrats didn't win yesterday because of anything to do with Bush, but instead it was because the Republicans didn't have one strong candidate besides Bloomberg and to a degree Forrester. The Bush factor will be big next year, but don't overestimate it, anyone with half a brain would start to distance themselves already and realign with the McCain side of the party. Don't count your chickens before they hatch.

The Irony of Equality

2005-11-07T21:28:00.000-05:00

1789 was a pretty big year. Thomas Jefferson brought the first macaroni machine to the US, Benjamin Rush started a temperance movement (a bit of irony for my fellow noble Dickinsonians), the United States had its first national election, and that pesky little place called France was having a revolution.

In the past few hundred years a few things have changed. Macaroni now comes in a box and if served without cheese is really weird and the majority of people who know who Benjamin Rush is are probably alcoholics.

Some things have also stayed the same. Tomorrow there will be elections all over the United States and France will be starting another revolution.

One of the greatest Ironies is that the French Revolution has created the current situation. One of the results of the Revolution was that racial identification was made illegal. If you are French you are French. You are not African, Asian, Catholic or Muslim. You are French. The result is a large population that identifies with who they are but are not allowed to do so. Having an ethnicity is a crime.

Being told that everyone is equal when in reality certain ethnic groups, in this situation largely Muslim immigrants, are not being treated equally is a powder keg waiting to explode. This is not separate but equal but it is instead unrecognized and marginalized.

The current organization of the French state has done nothing to help the situation. The French government appears to have focused a large amount of energy and effort to preserving order but not enough effort has been placed on the ability to regain order. The French Police have been castrated to a point where they are not able to take the appropriate actions against the rioters.

This statement may seem to be at odds with what was posted before. It is important to take note that I am not justifying the riots. I am explaining them. The French government must act to regain control but once the fires have cooled it is just as important that the French people re-examine their values and realize it is time to embrace people as being diverse and embrace diversity as a wonderful thing, rather than something to fear.

The fact that the rest of Europe is slipping into disorder has larger implications that I really must consider before I write about it. My guess is it has something to do with TO being a dick but I am not sure.

Foiled Oil

2005-11-06T21:35:00.000-05:00

Recently there has been a lot of talk about the record profits that the oil companies have been raking in and how evil they are.

Do I wish that gas was cheaper? Of course (though I also have plenty of free gas to give away. BAZING! ok enough fart jokes.)

However we must consider the true facts of the situation.

1) The record profits that the oil companies are making are peanuts in comparison to profits that other companies are reporting. For example for every dollar in sales, ExxonMobil makes 9.8 cents. McDonald's and Coca-Cola make 13.8 cents and 21.2 cents, respectively. Google makes 24.2 cents, and Merck, Bank of America, Microsoft and Citigroup all make more than that.

2) One also has to remember that the record ExxonMobil sales are heavily influenced by the sale of MidAtlantic assets to LukOil.

Lastly there is one party that is profiting more than anyone due to high oil prices. That party: the government which has collected $1.34 trillion in revenue from local and federal gas taxes since 1977, more than double the domestic profits of major oil companies during that time, according to the Tax Foundation.

Do any of my readers care to recall why the revolution was fought? If I recall it was due to unfair taxation.

The oil companies have a responsibility to themselves to maintain a profit which enables them to maintain the business, this guarantees us the oil we need. The government, however, holds no responsibility that can be justified by them making DOUBLE the profits of the companies that are in this business.

On a side note, peak oil theory has been pretty much been debunked. Oil reserves are significantly higher than proven before. Deep-earth oil theory is gaining support from some very smart people.

Thanks to Rich Lowry for the stats in this article

New Links

2005-11-06T20:14:00.000-05:00

There are a couple new links at the left.

The first new one is Eye of the Storm. A wonderful blog by a former professor of mine, Crispin Sartwell. It is funny, biting and brilliant. I highly suggest it.

The second new one is Fire Side with Roupes. This is a new blog but if it is half as funny as the person that is writing it then it should be about half as funny as Jono.

Real post coming in a bit.

Debate this

2005-11-05T20:57:00.000-05:00

The producers at the West Wing have the brilliant idea of having a live debate. So two fake presidential candidates are going to have a fake debate on live TV. But they are going to use real debate moderators and real questions.

I have a wager to make, this "debate" will recieve higher ratings than any of the debates in the last Presidential election. I also bet that there are enough stupid people in the United States that someone will stumble across it and think it is real.

The other possibility is that this will be the nail in the coffin for the West Wing. The show's ratings have been slipping for years and now the plan to increase them is to do something that is known to not get ratings, smart.

In other news Riots are spreading across France. It appears that once again it has been shown that Socialism doesn't work to keep people from being disenfranchised.

In other news:
Pirates are pretty cool

Penn State Kicks Ass

And lastly, FUCK T.O.

Cool Picture

2005-11-04T21:27:00.000-05:00

Just a quick little post.

This picture was on cnn.com take a close look, you can actually see the rubber bullets comming out of the shotgun. They are the little neon things.

What happens in Vegas, your thumbs stay in vegas

2005-11-04T20:52:00.000-05:00

So it appears that the mayor of Las Vegas has lost his freaking mind.

Goodman said the city has a beautiful highway landscaping project and "these punks come along and deface it."

"I'm saying maybe you put them on TV and cut off a thumb," the mayor said. "That may be the right thing to do."

Goodman also suggested whippings should be brought back for children who get into trouble.

So if that isnt freaking retarded I dont know what is. HOW DARE THOSE PUNKS RUIN THAT HIGHWAY.
Lets put it this way, I have been to Vegas and the only good looking things there were made out of silicone and not concrete. That and Sandman, he is pretty handsome.

Double Secret Probation

2005-11-03T22:22:00.000-05:00

There is another blog out there which is pretty good. (yes we are the two good ones, which gives you a 1 in 2340743925794023872034957092435 chance of finding a good blog to read) It is called Gurgly and is run by my sister. So it obviously it isn't perfect, but it gets the job done. Those of you accustomed to my political thought may be thrown for a little loop, it is a little more pro-government than things are around here. Well "pro-government" may be the wrong wording; perhaps I should say 'pro-government taking care of things because the people can't do it themselves.' Seriously though it is a good read and was a big motivator for me to get back into this ish. (old people click here)

So if you haven't heard yet, apparently the CIA is running secret prisons all over the world.

Not really that surprising and not really that big of a news story. The shocking part is that the Bush Administration all but confirms this when confronted about it. Yes, when I say all but confirms this I mean that they neither confirmed nor denied it.

So this may not seem like that big of a deal but the fact that they would not deny it is a de facto admission. The story here is that this administration is acting with such brass ones even in the face of indictments that it reminds me of Rocky fighting Ivan Drago after he watched Apollo Creed die; you know Rocky will win, but only with some sort of brain damage or something.

On another note, on google news this story only had 455 articles related to it... Phil Jackson returning to the Lakers had 459. Maybe that is important though... this administration has obviously learned from Kobe Bryant. I mean if they can't prove it, then you must not have done anything wrong.

Bird who? OH Bird FLU

2005-11-02T18:01:00.000-05:00

Bird Flu Fever is sweeping the country and it appears that the first victim will be our civil liberties. The Associated Press is reporting that the federal government is prepared to restrict travel if the bird flu becomes a pandemic in the United States. The rational behind this is reasonable, if there is a city where it is reaching epidemic proportions then cut it off so it doesn't spread elsewhere. The government is forgetting a few things:

1) It is a bird flu. It is freaking spread by birds, your road blocks will do a lot of good against them.
2) By the time the they get their act together to get quarantines in place the virus will almost certainly have spread beyond where originally detected.

All this is is an attempt by the government to chip away a little more at the limited freedoms that we retain. They will use this as an excuse to permanently restrict or monitor travel and it begins us down a dangerous path.

So it appears that Bird Flu is this year's Tickle Me Elmo... just perhaps a little less scary.

The dangerous little "L"

2005-11-01T22:54:00.000-05:00

One of the things that has driven me to blog is the lack of comparison of Harriet Miers to Skeletor; not only physically, but also because they are both evil. If Skeletor had the ability to take away She-Ra's right to an abortion he would have. The result would have been castle Gray Skull being over run by youngins and He-Man would have had to start selling refurbished ink cartridges to Thundercats to make ends meet. The quest to save the world from evil, and to protect the right to privacy, would have been lost. Luckily, one thing all evil geniuses are bad at is following through. Just like Skeletor could never really finish the job, Miers found that filling out paper work was just too much work to get on the Supreme Court.

Now we are left with Alito which when spelled backwards is Otila which Bill Gates tells me is supposed to be Attila. Is it a coincidence that this guy has basically the same name as one of histories most brutal men? I think not.

My problem with Alito is not that he went to Princeton, though that does make me suspicious (Hi Dad and Laura!), it is not the fact that he is conservative but instead it is The Dangerous Little "L." Right now you are asking yourself "What is The Dangerous Little 'L' and if it is little then why is it always in caps?" To your second question I have no response except that I went to Dickinson and not Princeton, that might have something to do with it; to your first question, however, I can respond.

The Dangerous Little "L" is what changes an idea to an ideal. That Little L is what worries me about Alito. He does not have ideas of governance or ideas about policy, he has ideals of conservatism. (it is important to state that "idea" in this context does not refer to Hegel's view of an idea as an absolute truth) The fact that his ideals are those of conservatism is not what worries me, I would be just as worried if they were leftist ideals, it is the fact that they are ideals at all. These ideals set an end point that is predetermined. Alito will try and fulfill an agenda that these ideals define. The only set of ideals that a candidate should have is that the constitution and the rights of the people are the most scared documents in the world. Anyone that doesn't believe that might as well be Skeletor.

The Dangerous Little "L" is what changes an idea to an ideal. That Little L is what worries me about Alito. He does not have ideas of governance or ideas about policy, he has ideals of conservatism. (it is important to state that "idea" in this context does not refer to Hegel's view of an idea as an absolute truth) The fact that his ideals are those of conservatism is not what worries me, I would be just as worried if they were leftist ideals, it is the fact that they are ideals at all. These ideals set an end point that is predetermined. Alito will try and fulfill an agenda that these ideals define.

The only set of ideals that a candidate should have is that the constitution and the rights of the people are the most scared documents in the world. Anyone that doesn't believe that might as well be Skeletor.

2005-11-01T22:34:00.000-05:00

As some of you may know this is not my first journey into blogging. Most of you, however, were probably never aware of my last blog due to the incredibly offensive and tasteless content. I am still going to be offensive and tasteless but this time it will be focused on these guys:
The state of Washington DC at this point is sickening. It isn't who is in the White House and who isn't. It is everyone that could be.

Washington has something seriously wrong with it, and as you all know I love pointing out people's short fallings to them, so that is what I am going to do.