Warning: This is not for children and contains vulgar language.

This is one of the funniest YouTube videos I’ve seen in a while. It’s the desert scene in Casino, as performed by Bert and Ernie using Robert Dinero and Joe Pesci voices. Pure genius. The end is especially funny.

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The other day I was watching Hardball with Chris Matthews and was shocked at his “Big Number” segment. The Big Number was 200, that represents the number of days since the U.S. Congress has requested that the CIA interviews of Bush and Cheney regarding the Valerie Plame leak be turned in. And what has the White House response been? Deafening silence. They have neither turned anything over nor even acknowledged the request. Matthews sarcastically asked, “Think the White House is going to try and wait it out till the end of their term?” I found this both sad and alarming.

So I was wondering, how can this be the case? How can Bush and Cheney refuse this, let alone ignore the request altogether? Is the Democtratic-lead Senate and House that lame? I thought G.W. was the lame duck?

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Here’s a bit of info that alarms the heck out of me. Apparently, the major Internet services providers around the globe are planning on charging consumers extra for visiting websites outside their ’subscription Internet area’. In other words, we’ll all have to pay a set fee like we do now but we’ll only be able to access big-name websites. If we want to go to any other website (like the millions upon millions of smaller, and often more useful website) we’ll have to pay more.

This will most likely have a devastating effect on the Internet as whole since it is mainly made up of the smaller, less commercialized websites. Now people will have a disincentive to visit these smaller sites in the form of higher prices. These sites’ visitors will substantially decrease, which will take away the motivation for people to even bother creating and maintaining websites, causing the whole Internet to come tumbling down.

Supposedly, insider information confirms this and it is predicted to happen by 2012. In fact, Time Magazine will be publishing a story on this very soon.

Please see http://ipower.ning.com/netneutrality2 to learn more and consider joining in on attempting to stop this.

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My United Airlines Trip Was Torture

I just traveled from a small airport in Montana called Bozeman to Hartford, CT ending a great trip out west. Unfortunately, my travels using United Airlines was a grueling 12-hour fiasco. I can only imagine how many other people have had equal or even worse airline experiences. Why do the airlines suck so bad now?

First, there were two flights scheduled out of the same gate when I was leaving Montana, mine and another one. Of course mine boarded second, so that caused us to have to wait an extra half hour. Then, right when we were supposed to board, they announced there was a malfunction on one of the doors (it wouldn’t close properly), so they delayed it another half hour. Finally, we got to board and then waited on the plane fro another half hour. This last torture was because they wanted to get “the papers” for the door fix before they took off, whatever that means.

So we left an hour and a half late and I had to make a connection in Chicago’s O’Hare. Now I was worried I wouldn’t make the connection because I originally had two hours, now I was going to be left with a half hour only.

Why Can’t The Airlines Get It Together?

Ya know that United Airlines charges for meals now? Five bucks for a “snack pack”! Also, they no longer give you peanuts with your drinks. I know other airlines are doing this too, but it is just so lame. They also charge for checking a second bag now too. Again, others are doing this too, but gimme a break. I read somewhere that they have finally realized that they can’t raise their rates any more. So they are looking for new ways to bilk customers. I looked at the extra charges on my bill, and one of them was an fuel charge. A fuel charge?! I thought that was what the actual ticket costs were for? That’s like adding a new charge to theater tickets called the “electricity charge” for the powering the theater lights!

We landed and I had about 20 minutes to spare. They said that we should go to Customer Service if we miss our connections. So me and another guy sprinted across the terminal B like two Amazing Race contestants trying to make it. We both got there right after the door had closed and the mobile stairs unit was backing up. Mind you, the plane was still sitting right there. We could both see the plane, in fact I think I saw the pilot give me the finger. I asked the woman if we could get on, and she said “nope, once the doors are closed there nothin’ we can do”, and then she went on snapping her gum and picking her multi-colored fake nails.

I kept complaining because the plane wasn’t moving. But she just iginored me and then called her supervisor who was even more annoying. I ended up leaving and my plane still hadn’t left.

Then I went to the Customer Service desk, which of course was 5 miles and 12 auto people-walkers away. The line was as large as opening day for a Star Wars movie. It was at least a block long, no kidding. By now I am sweating profusely from all the running.

After forever, I got another flight which left 3 hours later (or 9pm). So I went to the bar to kill time. By now, I had been traveling since 11am and it was 7pm (in another time zone of course).

When I finally boarded my second flight, we again had to sit on the tarmac for another 45 minutes! This time it was because the air conditioning was broken. Later, when I went to the bathroom, I noticed there was an ashtray. So I assume this plane was at least 15 years old. No wonder it was broken.

This plane was about one tenth full. Most of the seats were empty. I am a big guy and can barley fit in the tiny seats so I usually try to grab a bulkhead seat, or one that’s in the emergency exit row, which are almost always larger. So I tried to grab one of those my my assigned seat was one of the tiny ones. The flight attendant would not allow me to however. They said people pay more for those seats now. I explained that they were all empty. She refused so I was sent back to the little-people seats.

I ended up getting to Hartford at 1am the next day. What a horrible experience. United Airlines is lame. But so are most of the other airlines too. I can’t believe that the airlines can’t get it together. They provide a service that can almost be considered a necessity at this point, but they are all floundering or going bankrupt. Why are they struggling so much? Can it just be the rising cost of fuel? How come the phone companies can be profitable? How can companies like UPS or Federal Express be profitable? How can the gas and electric companies do it? If all these other needed and privatized industries do it, why can’t the airlines?!

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This kind of stuff drives me crazy as much as it makes me sad. I read an article on CNN about how humans are causing major species extinction. Wow, what a newsflash, I never would have thought! I wrote about this in an earlier post called Mass Global Species Extinction - Why We’re Causing it Today.

Anyway, the CNN article opens up saying:

The world’s wildlife has declined by 27 percent since 1970 because of the human impact on the environment, the World Wildlife Fund said Friday.

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So I asked a friend who is into watching the WWE, why the WWE is so popular? I don’t get it. Here’s his response:

The WWE is everywhere in modern American culture. The WWE is so popular that the candidates for the 2008 Presidential Nomination even acted out a few lines as if they were a professional wrestler. Yet, despite its massive popularity, the billions of dollars of tickets, pay-per-views and merchandise – oh so much merchandise – the WWE is continually denigrated by millions of others as childish and absurd. To discover why the WWE is so popular, let’s start by looking at just a few of the claims against it and by doing so actually examine the reason for its looming presence in American pop culture.

Negative Claim: The WWE is Fake

People who hate the WWE always chime in on about it being fake. The facts that it is scripted and the events are predetermined are used as a reason as to why nobody should care about it. However, all of the movies we go to see in the theater are fake, the plays that have for centuries been passed down and acted out are fake, and for that matter, most of the “reality” television we watch today is fake. So why is it such a big deal that the WWE is also fake?

The WWE is a scripted drama and soap opera. It provides an escape where other parts of life and reality never do. It pits good against evil, the ultimate dramatic battle. Friends are betrayed, relationships are destroyed, cliques and alliances are formed; really, life is played out on a small scale in a rowdy environment. By understanding the fact that the WWE is “fake”, one can put that claim aside. It no longer matters, for the same reason you pay $10 for a ticket to the new blockbuster knowing it was scripted a long time ago.

Negative Claim: The People are So Unrealistic

Of course the people are unrealistic, that’s what people want to see. These huge, overly muscled men and these outlandishly curvy women represent the thoughts, dreams, stereotypes, stigmas – and so on – of our society. These people become super heroes and super villains. If we wanted to watch two skinny guys getting into a fight, we’d go to a middle school recess. To stick with the movie example, look how outrageously attractive people make up the majority of the most popular actors and actresses. We don’t watch sports to see wheezing, overweight, middle age professionals struggle through the athletic motions. No, we watch them to see the astounding physical disciplines and accomplishments of athletes on a scale that we will never possibly achieve. On the same subject, that brings us to the next negative claim…

Negative Claim: The WWE is Not a Real Sport

While many fans of the WWE may jump up and proclaim that yes, indeed, the WWE is a real sport, I won’t. As I’ve said, the sport is scripted out and the results are predetermined. That doesn’t take away from the amazing athletic feats these athletes put themselves through and make themselves endure. You can be an athlete without participating in a sanctioned sport, and some of the best athletes in the world are performing in the WWE.

Performing, not playing, being the operative difference. No matter how scripted it is, a flip off a ten foot ring post is a fear inducing, dangerous maneuver. No matter how fake some of the blood spurts are, it doesn’t mean that getting hit in the head with a chair doesn’t hurt.

The bottom line is that the WWE is entertainment. When you peel away the negative stereotypes about it, its popularity becomes much easier to comprehend. When you’re not trying to make it real, when you’re not trying to say it’s a sport or the people involved in it look like the rest of us, it becomes exactly what it is: exciting, week after week, entertainment. It may seem as a weird obsession or a strange hobby, but it just isn’t all that much different from anything else we occupy our time with. It’s an escape, it’s an alternate reality, it’s a drama, it’s an immersion, it’s a passion and it’s a hobby; for some, it’s even a lifestyle.

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Is Drinking Beer and Smoking Cigarettes Really So Bad?

I saw a news segment this morning on a Englishman named Buster Martin who is getting ready to run a marathon, and he’s 101 years old. And oh yeah, he drinks a pint of beer in the morning and another 7 throughout the day as well as smoking 14 cigarettes a day too! Maybe binge drinking and smoking isn’t so bad for you after all? I mean, my grandmother died at 92 and she smoked all her life. My guess is that this is not the norm and indeed, smoking and drinking a lot is bad for you.

I heard this comedian once saying that in heaven you can smoke with no ill affects. He said everyone up there is smoking and the minute he got there he’d ask St. Peter for a light.

I also read that more and more young people are drinking. Something like more than 6 times a month and 4 or more drinks at a time. And they said this is considered binge drinking! Wow, I didn’t realize the threshold was so low.

I just thought the story of Buster Martin was great because it shows that everyone is different and that aging doesn’t have to be such a bad thing or even slow you down. This marathon he’s running is his first and he still works. This guy is awesome. Some people may very well think that if they could smoke and drink beer at 100 years old,they’d already reached heaven!

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From BBC News:

An Italian woman artist who was hitch-hiking to the Middle East dressed as a bride to promote world peace has been found murdered in Turkey.
The naked body of Giuseppina Pasqualino di Marineo, 33, known as Pippa Bacca, was found in bushes near the northern city of Gebze on Friday. She had said she wanted to show that she could put her trust in the kindness of local people.

Can you believe that? Definitely the ultimate in horrendous irony. Was this woman wrong for being so trustful? Or was it just a case of really bad luck meeting a scumbag murderer? I wonder if she was a lone woman hitch hiking dressed as a bride may have increased her chances of being found by a kook. Regardless, it certainly wasn’t her fault and I think they need to make a big effort convicting the guilty person. It makes me sick to think that something like this could happen.

Read full story 

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Which came first, the stereotype or the behavior and attitudes? Does one perpetuate the other? I know that in many cases, people attempt to group themselves and others into neat, little buckets, often at the expense of all.

I often wonder what kinds of people go to different kinds of events like concerts or sports games or whatever. Are stereotypes real or are they made up? Here’s an example. People who go to NASCAR have a higher likelihood of liking Kenny Chesney than Jack Johnson. Or people who like boxing or the UFC will probably prefer Iron Maiden to Celine Dion. Are these stereotypes? Is country music and car racing are enjoyed by the same “type” of person? Do people who like watching fights also like heavy metal? Or how about people who are highly educated and make a really good living and are Democrat, do they tend to like Jimmy Buffett and The Police, for example?

I always get a kick out of watching the news or political shows where they break people down into simple, little psychographic or demographic groups. This is even more apparent with the presidential race looming so close. Obama seems to get the support of the upper-middle class, highly educated white man, whereas Hillary Clinton get the blue collar, lower-middle class white man. Can you really break things up like this? Maybe you can. After all, Barack Obama has indeed gotten huge percentages of the black vote in many of the primaries.

So political campaigns and marketing and advertising companies are faced with trying to corral people into neat, little packages. But it really doesn’t necessarily work that way. There’s the NASCAR-watching, church-going, country music-listening, abortion-hating, God-fearing Republican on one side. And then there’s the jazz and classical-listening, intellectual, impractical, wimpy liberal Democrat on the other. Or there’s the heavy metal-listening, pot-smoking dude who wears jeans and jean jackets, still has longer hair than the norm, has an earring and love the Pittsburgh Penguins or the Detroit Red Wings or the New Jersey Nets. Then there’s the alternative, thoughtful, sensitive and young type who loves American Idol and Ryan Seacrest, text messages constantly, plays Xbox 2 and is awesome at Halo 3, and loves artists like Raven Symone or the Jonas Brothers and maybe mildly likes an NFL team (maybe the Patriots or Dolphins?) because it’s the “cool” thing to like.

It’s sort of like how groups or ‘clicks’ get together in high school and all wear the same clothes and like the same sports and listen to the same music. You got the jocks who wear sweatshirts, jeans and baseball caps, and only like sports and probably play baseball and football and love teams like the Colts or the Red Sox. They usually listen to music that is very mainstream only. Then you have the alternative and/or goth-type kids who act angry at the world, wear black clothes, and listen to music that is marketed as being out of the mainstream, but really is still mainstream, like Marylin Manson or Green Day. (Sort of like how getting a tattoo is supposed to show your rebelliousness, uniqueness and how you don’t follow the mainstream, yet EVERYONE gets tattoos, so it actually does the opposite!) Of course there are the geeks in high school who often end up forming a group of their own since the other ‘clicks’ didn’t let them in.

Another infamous group in high school is the classic “mean girls” click. (You know, like the movie Lindsey Lohan starred in). These are the girls who think they’re beautiful, sometimes cheer lead, but often just date the jocks. They’re stuck up, wicked, often blond, very insecure, and rush around the school and dances like they have extremely important things to get done. What about the musicians? Well, depending on the music they like can often determine what group you get inserted into. If you like classical or jazz, and you play some brass instrument and play in the school band, you’re likely to end up in the geek squad. However, if you like Ozzy, Maiden or the Foo Fighters, you play guitar, and maybe lke to work on cars and act like a grease monkey, you may be in the “burner” group. But all of these “clicks” are self-perpetuated. They all run of the fear and insecurity of its members. each person in each group just wants to be liked, so they don’t dare stray from what they think they are supposed to be like.

Adults are just big children. People are all just big kids. We hide our true thoughts & feelings better as adults, but the feelings are still there all the time. We still want to belong or be accepted by our peers, we all want to be loved, belong to a click, and we still find ourselves giving in to immediate gratification when we know better. And some of us still lie and cheat in our everyday lives. Deep down inside we are a little more mature and wise, but basically still very often have child-like thoughts and feelings.

Yes, all of this stereotype stuff is silly of course. After we graduate high school, we’re supposed to drift away from thinking so black and white. High school is an oversimplification of life that needs to be transcended, and this can be achieved through becoming friends with people from other backgrounds and interests. Also, as you get older, you can’t help but start to like different things. No one can be put into perfect little buckets. Political strategists can’t, school can’t and marketing executives can’t either.

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Eliot Spitzer is Another Hypocrite Politician

Allegedly, Eltiot Spitzer, governor of the state of New York, was “linked” to a prostitution ring. What’s hypocritical is that Spitzer used to be a prosecutor and prosecuted at least two prostitution rings! I am just so sick of politicians who publicly condemn things that they privately participate in. And Spitzer’s a super delegate too, and he was going to vote for Hillary Clinton.

Another painful example is good ‘ol Larry Craig. He allegedly played footsie in a public men’s bathroom trying to make contact for a homosexual liaison. But publicly, he denounced the gay lifestyle. It seems like U.S. politics is full of this (and I think it’s even more prevalent in the overly-repressed Republicans).

In my opinion, live and let live. Stop denouncing stuff and then you won’t be hypocritical.

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It is the night before the next “Super” Tuesday, with Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont all voting in the Primary. I think Hillary Clinton needs to win both Texas and Ohio by 15%+ or she won’t have the necessary delegates to get the Dem nomination. The polls says that she is close to tied in Texas and up by 5-10% in Ohio. So if the polls are close, she doesn’t seem to have a chance. Although I find the term “movement” silly for describing Obama’s campaign and rise from obscurity, I do agree that Barack Obama seems to be close to unstoppable.

“If Obama wins Texas and Ohio, it’s game over,” said CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider. “If Clinton wins Texas and Ohio, it’s game on until someone can figure out how to reach a majority of delegates. That may not happen until the Democratic National Convention in late summer. If Clinton and Obama split Texas and Ohio, it’s a new game.”

I’m not so sure I believe she has that much of a chance. I don’t think that even if they do split these two states, Clinton is going to be the one to back down for the sake of the party in the end.

I really don’t think Hillary has much of a chance at this point. It will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow night and to see what the Clinton machine does for their next step.

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Why Brad Callen and His SEO Elite’s Support Didn’t Care About Me, and Probably Won’t Care About You Either

A bunch of years ago, I purchased software called SEO Elite from a guy named Brad Callen. SEO Elite is search engine optimization software that analyzes back links of competitors, among a few other things. For a while it worked great. I initially liked it and used it regularly. Then I had to change computers, and the software never worked right again on my new computer. I contacted their Support and explained my situation.

Whoever was on the other end of Brad Callen’s SEO Elite software Support had a horrendous attitude and not only didn’t help me, but was regularly antagonistic in the emails he/she would send me. They couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t working properly on my new PC, and at times suggested I didn’t know what I was doing, or that my computer must have software/hardware problems. I explained that it was a brand new computer, and that SEO Elite didn’t work properly on other computers of mine either. I also explained that ALL the other software on my new PC worked fine, and I had a lot of software on their.

Bottom line: If SEO Elite works properly, it’s decent. But the SEO Elite Support was not only utterly useless, but also rude and condescending. And Brad Callen doesn’t seem to care about his customers, he only cares about getting new customers, in my opinion.

After many painful support tickets and emails later, I had gotten absolutely no where. Finally, Support suggested I contact Brad Callen, the owner/creator of the software (I think). I emailed him and explained the situation. He said he’d look into it, but I never heard back from. So I emailed him again saying I was following up. He never emailed me back. I emailed again and explained that I was probably one of his first customers, that I had purchased SEO Elite when it first came out and had been through many version upgrades, basically that I was an old and loyal customer.

Apparently, Brad couldn’t have cared less about me or my problem. I must have emailed him another ten times, but he never replied again. In one email, I even asked for a refund since the software was basically useless to me. But I never heard from him again. So I guess they don’t give refunds if the software doesn’t work. Finally, I gave up emailing and resigned myself to have crappy, useless software. Ya win some, ya lose some.

I never would have made a post like this. Like I said, I had given up and plus, I had more important things to work on. But what finally got me to write this is Brad Callen’s incessant email blasts to me touting his great SEO Elite software. I got another one today and it reminded me of the whole bad experience. It is very frustrating being regularly reminded of it.

So, my review of the software is this: If you buy it, pray it works fine on your system, because if it doesn’t, you may have a very tough time getting real support or help. And if your experience is anything like mine, you won’t get a refund either. If Brad, the head of it all is this apathetic about his existing customers, I imagine the whole company is like this. I certainly got that from their “Support” as well.

There’s other software out there that is comparable to SEO Elite. In my opinion, try that instead.

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I am reading an interesting book called Crisis, Pursued by Disaster, Followed Closely by Catastrophe which is “a memoir that reveals the layers of bizarre circumstances that set a family on the run, hiding for decades” according to the book. In it, there is a dysfunctional family that travels back and forth from Mexico to the U.S. trying to evade the FBI. It is the age of McCarthyism. It has caused me to start to see similarities between McCarthyism and today’s Patriot Act.

The climate in America during the Hoover days was one of distrust. Communism was the big bad wolf and anyone who sympathized could be suspect. Today just substitute Communism with Terrorism. There is at least one industry that has directly benefited from 9/11, Bush and Iraq; the surveillance industry. This industry has exploded in the last half-decade. Distrust is in the air again today and it’s scary. There is definitely a similarity between between McCarthyism and George Bush’s Patriot Act, in fact, here’s an article about this that was written in 2005.

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Check this out. My uncle is and accountant he needs to get his certifications or something updated every year. But I guess in his industry they offer continuing professional education (CPE) courses in cool destinations so they can brush up on their education and take a vacation they can write off at the same time. So my uncle is going to Hawaii this upcoming year with his family. It’s called a CPE conference. Anyway, it sounded kinda cool so I figured I would mention here.

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Does Watching TV Really Make You Dumb?

TV makes you dumb. But it’s oh-so-good nonetheless. And therein lies the problem. The “boob-tube” is aptly named.

I heard this guy being interviewed the other day who said that his really good friend was a writer for a major TV crime drama on a network station. He said his friend was reprimanded by his superiors for writing plots and dialog that were too complicated and required too much of the viewer’s full attention. He was summarily told to dumb-down his writing to allow for dish-washing watching. In other words, make the plots and dialogs easy enough to follow for a person to be capable of following it while washing the dishes.

Okay, so I think that says it all. A lot of mainstream TV is seriously dumbed down. It is purposefully made for multi-tasking. In fact, I’m watching TV right now as I write this, seriously.

But does it make you dumber? I sometimes envisage the television set silently and invisibly sucking brain cells and synapses out of my brain the minute I switch it on. I imagine that the longer I watch, the more of my brain matter is methodically extracted. I guess this is just a fantasy, but I really do believe it does indeed make you stupid.

Ways TV Makes You Dumber

• TV puts you in a mild trance-like state where your brain shuts down and is left unchallanged (I’m pretty sure there have been studies that have shown that TV does have a hypnotic affect on the brain)
• It rewards you for doing nothing, sort of like a drug, and that can’t be good for you
• It’s a passive activity, non-interactive, so watching TV is something that is being done to you, not with you, again leaving you completely unchallenged.
• TV usually panders to the lowest common intellectually denominator
• It efficiently and all-too-often takes the place of activities that could potentially expand our intelligence, such as conversing, reading, or project undertakings
• Television is intimately tied to advertising and consumerism, so the goal of most programs is to promote capitalism (through commercials and actual program content), and not to represent reality. TV often distorts reality and manipulates meanings in a way that benefits advertisers. Since we have a tendency to believe what we see on TV, our minds are susceptible to being influenced in a way that benefits advertisers and promotes the goals of consumerism, which is often at odds with intelligence.
• TV pushes upon us the erroneous mindset that if we only buy a certain product or service, we’ll be happy. Furthermore, and even more damaging is that this implies that if we are not currently satisfied or happy, then there must be something wrong with us. This is a horrible state of affairs, because as the Buddha so elegantly put it, life is suffering. There is no escape from suffering, and the sooner we accept this, the better off we’ll be. I remember this one commercial I saw for an over-the-counter pain reliever that claimed to be “one more step to a pain-free life”, implying that life is supposed to be pain-free!
• In George Leonard’s book Mastery, Leonard explains that TV shapes our thinking in a way that makes us believe that the outcome is more important than the process, that everything can be achieved, resolved or wrapped up within a specified and short period or time. Again, this is a bastardization of reality. Life simply does not work this way. Most things aren’t black and white. And most things that are worthwhile do not take a half hour or hour to achieve. He explains that both TV shows and commercials present viewers with an unrealistic rhythm of life where problems are encountered and then resolved by the end of the commercial or show, and that it is one climax after another. So watching TV distorts our perception of reality, which makes you less intelligently equipped to deal with the real world.
• Our minds are further warped by constantly watching beautiful people enjoy wonderful lives, called the Beautiful People Syndrome by Ron Kaufman (http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/commentary/syndrome.html) Thus we tend to erroneously believe that our lives ought te be filled with goodness, perfect looks and perfect lives, and that if we don’t have this, then there is something wrong with us.
• Here’s an interesting tidbit of info from http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=805412: Scientists did a calorimetric test to determine energy consumption while watching TV. What they found surprised them. They found that on average people watching TV consumed ten per cent less energy than normal resting energy consumption. That’s right, you actually consume more energy sitting there doing nothing than when you are watching TV. There is a simple explanation. It seems that this is due to the concentration people exert while watching TV reducing the amount of fidgeting and random movement people do. While fidgeting may be a major part of one’s resting energy use, thinking uses up energy, too. The neurons in the brain aren’t very good at holding their own energy for long, so glial cells in the brain constantly transfer energy to the brain cells, energy taken from the blood. So if you keep your body steady but try solving a differential equation, you’ll probably find yourself losing more energy than while sitting and doing nothing at all. Of-course, TV excites neurons in the primary visual areas, but perhaps that’s, on average, as far as it goes ;). We may lose less calories watching TV because we’re not using our brains to think, only to watch.

The problem is that TV often feels so good. It’s the ultimate in laziness. You don’t have to do a thing, it’s done for you and to you without having to put in any effort. You don’t have to participate in life at all when watching TV. It allows you to escape life, avoid your problems and numb your brain. In all these ways, TV is truly like a drug. And those who put people down for abusing alcohol or drugs but then go on to watch too much TV are simply being hypocritical.

I remember when I was a child, I was hooked on TV much to the chagrin of my dad, who is the intellectual type and has always known the dangers of TV. So he handed down a new law that I had to live by. I think it was that I was allowed 2 hours of TV a day and no more. Every time I went over my allotted 2 hours, he took .50 cents out of my allowance. I remember that we never had cable because my dad didn’t want us to have even more temptation. I clearly recall how Stripes starring Bill Murray came out on HBO and everyone at school talked about it endlessly. I felt so left out and deprived. Unfortunately, all that did has made me appreciate TV even more as an adult, and sometimes I catch myself watching way too much on a daily basis.

Child Development and TV

And I have a child on the way now. How am I going to manage and regulate his TV viewing? How should I? I recently read that Baby Einstein, a TV video series that is purported to be good for children’s development is actually bad for them. In the latest study on the effects of popular videos such as the “Baby Einstein” and “Brainy Baby” series, researchers found that these videos may be doing more harm than good. And they may actually delay language development in toddlers. Led by Frederick Zimmerman and Dr. Dimitri Christakis, both at the University of Washington, the research team found that with every hour per day spent watching baby DVDs and videos, infants learned six to eight fewer new vocabulary words than babies who never watched the videos. These products had the strongest detrimental effect on babies 8 to 16 months old, the age at which language skills are starting to form. “The more videos they watched, the fewer words they knew,” says Christakis. “These babies scored about 10% lower on language skills than infants who had not watched these videos.” (from http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1650352,00.html). Interactivity is paramount for the development of babies. Face time with people trumps passive TV watching every time.

We have a brand new HD LCD flat screen that is huge. I absolutely love it and it has inevitably increased my television consumption. It’s like one side of our living room has been transformed into a massive wall of entertainment. It calls to me at all hours of the day and night and I can’t get enough of it. How on Earth am I going to be able to limit my child’s TV watching when I love it and have a huge new HDTV?! I knew it was stupid to have purchased it.

But I really think TV makes you dumb, so I guess I am going to have to be strong and seriously limit my child’s viewing.

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After watching the latest Republican presidential debate made me realize that more and more people, (these potential presidents) but especially this current administration, and frighteningly some average Americans have really lost regard for the U.S. Constitution. When asked if the president should go to Congress first before going to war, all except Ron Paul and unbelievably Rudi Gulliani, said that they’d like to go to Congress if they had time, but would most likely just do what they had to do to protect America.

Do they not realize that Congress has to approve war? After Pearl Harbor and 9/11, Congress was assembled the very next day, it would almost take longer for the military to get assembled for crying out loud!

Here are a few excerpts from a bone-chilling article from Naomi Wolf:

But legal rights activists at the Center for Constitutional Rights say that the Bush administration is trying increasingly aggressively to find ways to get around giving even US citizens fair trials. “Enemy combatant” is a status offence - it is not even something you have to have done. “We have absolutely moved over into a preventive detention model - you look like you could do something bad, you might do something bad, so we’re going to hold you,” says a spokeswoman of the CCR. . .

. . . Even as Americans were focused on Britney Spears’s meltdown and the question of who fathered Anna Nicole’s baby, the New York Times editorialised about this shift: “A disturbing recent phenomenon in Washington is that laws that strike to the heart of American democracy have been passed in the dead of night … Beyond actual insurrection, the president may now use military troops as a domestic police force in response to a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, terrorist attack or any ‘other condition’.”

Critics see this as a clear violation of the Posse Comitatus Act - which was meant to restrain the federal government from using the military for domestic law enforcement.

Of course the entire wire-tapping issue is another example of the Constitution getting fucked. Here’s another excerpt from the same article:

In 2005 and 2006, when James Risen and Eric Lichtblau wrote in the New York Times about a secret state programme to wiretap citizens’ phones, read their emails and follow international financial transactions, it became clear to ordinary Americans that they, too, could be under state scrutiny.

Also, did you know that the federal government was able to make Google hand over user information while “looking for terrorists”? Do you have any idea how much data Google has on almost every one of us? Feel like the Constitution is getting screwed? How about we’re all getting screwed, little by little, piece by piece, and we ought to be at least a little frightened.

For a more in-depth look at all this, see Naomi Wolf’s book on the same subject as the article I cited above called The End of America

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Top Three Public Etiquette Annoyances

1. If I’m walking out of a store and passing through the front door and you’re headed into the store, and I hold the door for you, say “Thanks”.
2. If I’m waiting in line and you need to get past me and you walk directly in front of me, say “Excuse me”.
3. If you’re waiting on a side street trying to get into the main flow of traffic and I stop and let you go, give me a little hand wave to say “thanks”.

Every morning, I drive a couple of blocks from my house to go to a Dunkin Donuts to grab a cup of coffee and all three of these things will usually happen. It’s on a main street in my downtown, and so there’s always slow-moving traffic in front of the coffee shop and there’s usually a line of cars trying to get back onto the main street I’m on. Since the traffic is moving slowly, I usually pause and let a car in. Invariably, they’ll just pull onto the main street without any acknowledgment. They won’t say ‘thanks’ or give me a perfunctory wave or anything, as if it was their god-given right to get in.

I’ll then park and begin to walk into the coffee shop and there will be a person also walking in a few yards behind me. I’ll pause after I open the door and hold it open for the person behind me. Invariably, they won’t acknowledge the fact that I waited and held the door open for them. Again, they act as if they expect the door to be hed for them.

Then I’ll be waiting in the long line and someone will need to get across the shop to get to another line or leave and instead of going behind the line to get to where they’re going, they’ll walk right in front of me, causing me to have to back up a bit, and they won’t say “excuse me”.

Rude and Inconsiderate People Suck

The people who do these things are assholes. They are ignorant and rude and mean people suck.

Were people never taught politeness? Was my mom the only mother on Earth who taught etiquette?

If you’re waiting to get into the main flow of traffic, and someone is nice enough to let you in, for god’s sake, give them a little wave of thanks, will you? Is it that hard? Are you that much of a douche bag that you can’t even acknowledge the person’s niceness? They didn’t need to let you in, so since they did, return the favor by acknowledging their consideration.

If someone is nice enough to hold the door open for you, be a human being and say “thanks”. It doesn’t take any effort at all and it’s the right thing to do. Don’t take people’s kindness for granted.

And if you cross directly in front of a person who is standing in place somewhere, say “excuse me”. Again, it takes no effort and it’s the right thing to do. The world doesn’t revolve around you. No one needs to hold the door open for you, or leave you space to pass in front of them , or let you in the line of traffic. So if they do, don’t be an asshole - acknowledge their kindness. When I don’t get a ‘thanks’, it makes me less motivated to do it again for someone else the next time. I start to think that all people suck.

I predict that if more and more people fail to be polite, we’ll eventually get to the point where no one will ever hold doors open for people or let people in their line of traffic. Let’s not let it get to that point. Don’t be a mean and inconsiderate person who sucks. Don’t be an asshole.

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General David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker testified in front of Congress the last few days and the whole thing has made me delve deeper into a depression at the current political landscape than I ever thought possible. There are a few take-a ways that I just have to mention here, as they disgust me to no end.

At the hearings on Tuesday Sept. 11th, Senator Warner (a Republican) asked General Petraeus if the Iraq War has made (or is making) it safer overall for the U.S. Don’t forget, General David Petraeus is the head of the entire Iraq War campaign, so if anyone should have a handle on this, he should. Astonishingly and sadly, Petraeus’s answered that he “didn’t know”. First, he should know. I mean, he’s got around 150,000 troops risking their life and limb every days under him, and for what? This may be the first time a top military leader has said this regarding a foreign American war.

What’s even sadder is that I suspect his “I don’t know” answer really means “no”! At this point, only the blind still believes that the Iraq War has not actually given more reasons to hate America and helped recruit new terrorists. Petraeus knows that the Iraq war has been nothing short of a catalyst for American hate. Bin Laden got his wish, to get a semi-permanent American military presence in the Middle East to act as a lighting rod for all unemployed, uneducated young Muslim men.

The second thing that drives me crazy Petraeus’s testimony before the U.S. Congress is what The Daily Show with Jon Stewart showed last night. It showed clips, one after the other, of various George W. Bush statements about the “surge” and the current state of the American occupation of Iraq interspersed with Petraeus’s testimony. The two of them obviously are reading from the exact same script. Once in a while Petraeus would use a synonym to alter the message slightly from his Commander in Chief’s, but he’s basically parroting the ‘official’ White House spin.  MoveOn.org printed a headline that said:

“Gernal Petraeus or General Betray Us?”

Lastly, and this is really pathetic, when Petraeus or Bush or any of the other Neo-con’s talk about what is going to happen with the war, what exactly the “surge” will do, or how things are going to turn out, they always say that no one can predict the future. They say it’s impossible to know what is going to happen, only that we can hope and plan on “success”. Of course they have not defined “success”, nor can they. It’s a moving target for Bush that has slowly descended from giving Iraq a free and Democratic government to now simply reducing car bombings.

So Bush, Petraeus and company cannot predict the future if we stay in Iraq, they admit it. But these same people can perfectly predict the future IF we pull out! They know that chaos will be imminent. They know it will be disastrous. They know it will be horrible for the region and for the U.S. I just love how they pick and choose when they can predict the future and when they can’t based on what serves them best.

What’s the saddest of all is that American’s are coming home with missing limbs or in body bags, all for nothing. I am duly impressed with the courage and loyalty of our American soldiers for carrying out their duties overseas, but I wish they were home safe and sound instead, and protecting America.

The Iraq War has been the greatest recruiting tool for Al Queda EVER! What are we doing there?! Why didn’t we spend the money that we wasted in Iraq on protecting our borders here in the U.S.? Petraeus has all but said the Iraq war has not made the U.S. safer.

By the way, if you’re interested, read an article in latest issue of Rolling Stones called The Great Iraq Swindle

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Bad Drivers Suck

Why are some many people really bad at driving? I find myself hating pretty much all drivers. I hate young men (or old boys) who drive like crazy fools, weaving in and out like a cocaine-laden woman in labor trying to make it to the ER. I hate that they’re putting my life in danger because they think they’re invincible. I hate old people who drive 25 miles under the speed limit and who can barely see over the steering wheel. (I know I’m going to get old some day (if I’m lucky, that is) and so I try to have patience with the elderly, but . . . get outta the way!

Gotta Get One Car-Length Ahead!

But here are a few of the things that really drive me nuts. Let’s say I am minding my own business, driving along in the fast lane on the highway, passing cars on my right, and staying a considerate distance away from the car ahead me, who’s doing the same for the car ahead of him. What I hate is the guy behind me veering into the right lane quickly, then passing me on the right hand side, and then cutting me off just to get one car-length ahead. What the hell?! Why do people have to do this? Does it really make them feel better to get 30 yards farther along in the fast lane than they were before?

Sunday Driving in the Fast Lane

Am I the only one in the fricken’ world who know that the fast lane is for driving fast and passing other cars? I absolutely hate when someone is taking a slow, Sunday drive down the fast lane, getting passed by cars on his right, but refuses to move over himself. Why do you torture people?! If you’re gonna drive 50 mile per hour, don’t do it in the fast lane. And if I come up behind you, move the fuck over! The fast lane is for passing, not dawdling!

Fast Lane Tailgating

On the flip side of the stubborn fast lane slowpoke is the antsy guy who comes roaring up behind you in the fast lane when there are a million more cars ahead of you. This guy rides your bumper trying to tell you to get out of the way. But I’m doing 80 mph and there’s a guy in front of me doing the same, and one in front of him, and so on. I wonder if my tailgater is trying to push the line of 50 cars out of the way by tailgating everyone. Chill out, there’s no where for anyone to go!

Cutting Me Off After a Red Light

Ok, so there’s a road near my house that has two lanes leading up to a stop light around a slight bend. The right lane is for traffic going straight through the light, and the left lane is for left turn only. Since most people are going straight, the right lane builds cars up faster at a red light than the left lane. Every single goddamn day there’s invariably someone who zooms past me on the right as I wait in the big line of cars for the light to turn green. When it turns green, I have to wait while that guy puts his right blinker on and cuts off someone ahead of me to get back in the lane going straight. WTF?! Are you kidding me? Can’t you follow the rules? I know you know the left lane is for left turns only, you just gotta get ahead by a few cars. You’re lame. Wait in line like the rest of us!

Highway Far Right Lane Campers 

Here’s another one. Don’t drive in the far right lane on the highway and not get over when people are trying to merge onto the highway. Unless you’re getting off at the next exit, and the exit is real close. Otherwise let me get on the highway. Why are you in that lane? I especially hate when they act surprised when they seem me trying to merge. Don’t you realize people are trying to get on the highway and you’re supposed to let them in. If you hate letting people in, get oughtta that lane dummy.

I know that I have done all the things I’ve mentioned above at one time or another, sometimes because I’m in a serious rush. And I imagine there’s some other annoying blogger like me out there bitching about my driving. But I don’t do it often. I get the feeling that many people who do these things do them every single time they get behind the wheel. The road is a place where everyone is just trying to get where they’re going in a decent amount of time all in one piece. I wish people could chill the hell out and stop making a habit of getting one car-length ahead.

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Like the cries for help from a victim getting ignored, most of us share in the collective disregard for the current all-out assault on Earth’s species.

Here are the opening paragraphs of the Catherine Genovese murder story that was published in the New York Times in March of 1964:

“For more than half an hour thirty-eight respectable, law-abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a woman in three separate attacks in Kew Gardens.

Twice the sound of their voices and the sudden glow of their bedroom lights interrupted him and frightened him off. Each time he returned, sought her out, and stabbed her again. Not one person telephoned the police during the assault; one witness called after the woman was dead.”

How could thirty-eight respectable citizens stand by and do nothing to help this poor woman? Many explained that it had to do with big-city apathy and our modern society’s slide into selfishness and indifference.

Two New York-based psychology professors Bibb Latane and John Darley posited that the thirty-eight people all failed to call the police because of social proof reasons. They argued that each person probably thought someone else must have surely made the call already.

They also suggested pluralistic ignorance may have been part of the cause too. This simply means that in distressful times, we often look around at how others are acting and key off their behavior. So if we’re unsure if something really is an emergency, we look for clues in the people around us, and if they’re not panicking or doing anything, we conclude that it must not be an emergency. They looked out the window and saw others ignoring the pleas, so they may have surmised there was nothing to worry about.

The way most of the world’s population today is overlooking the ongoing and unprecedented destruction of our world’s species and habitats seems eerily similar to the way those thirty-eight bystanders ignored Catherine Genovese’s screams back in 1964.

The Earth’s entire ecosystem is under attack and the vast majority of people are doing nothing. Why? Maybe it’s apathy, greed, selfishness or pluralistic ignorance. Maybe everyone thinks someone else will take care of the problem. Maybe people think they’ll be dead long before it affects them. Maybe it’s a combination of all of these reasons.

Thankfully there are some scientists, ecologists, professors and environmentalists who are fighting to save our world, but they represent a tiny and sad fraction of us all.

I am writing this to try and enlist many more people to first realize the emergency we’re presently facing and next to be moved to take some kind of action. This means you.

The World Conservation Union and its Red List

A study recently released by the World Conservation Union, a coalition of leading conservation groups, says that more than 11,000 plants and animals could be extinct within the first few decades of the 21st century. It says one of every four mammals and one of every eight birds could face extinction. Although the extinction of various species is an ongoing natural phenomenon and has happened at accelerated rates in Earth’s past, the rate of extinction occurring in today’s world is exceptional — as many as 100 to1,000 times greater than natural rates found in the fossil record, Dr. Donald A. Levin said in the January-February issue of American Scientist magazine.

In 2004 the World Conservation Union issued its “Red List”, an annual report on the conservation status of species. They called the 2004 report “the most comprehensive evaluation ever undertaken of the status of the world’s biodiversity.”

The following is taken from the 2004 Red List’s Executive Summary:

• 15,589 species (7,266 animal species and 8,323 plant and lichen species) are now considered at risk of extinction — an increase of 3,330 species since the 2003 Red List. The increase is largely due to the fact that scientists have finally been able to assess all of the world’s amphibians.
• Among major species groups, the percentage of threatened species ranges between 12% and 52%.
• 12% of birds are threatened, 23% of mammals, and 32% of amphibians.
• The numbers of threatened species are increasing across almost all major taxonomic groups.
• Most threatened species occur in the tropics, especially on mountains and on islands.
• Countries that have the most threatened species tend to be those that are least able to invest significant resources into conservation.

Scientists believe that the Earth has experienced five other mass extinctions in its history, often called the “Big Five”. They all agree that we are now in the Sixth Extinction called the Holocene extinction event. The previous extinction periods were triggered by physical causes, such as impact events like meteors, large movements by tectonic plates or high volcanic activity. These natural events all led to climate change which then caused mass extinction.

The observed rate of extinction has accelerated dramatically in the last 50 years however, to a pace far greater than the rate seen during each of the Big Five.

Humanity is Causing this Mass Extinction

This current extinction period is being caused by humans. By entering new ecosystems which had never before experienced the human presence, people have disrupted the ecological balance by hunting, transmitting diseases and most significantly, habitat destruction.

We now routinely breech the “carrying-capacity” of many ecosystems and environments today. Because of mass human population growth we’re putting more and more stress on natural environments with various devastating activities. The top activities humans engage in that are responsible for the destruction of the world’s environments are:

• Habitat destruction
• Tropical deforestation
• Coral destruction
• Excessive fishing
• Overexploitation of species
• The introduction of alien species
• Soil contamination
• Air, water and land pollution
• The release of greenhouse gases causing global warming

The debate about global warming is silly. When I hear people say they don’t believe in global warming or say not to worry because the Earth has gone through it before, I am reminded of 13^th Century people arrogantly still bellowing that the world is flat. Usually, a person disregards global warming because they are either blindly repeating American conservative Republican talking points or have a hidden agenda that gives them some kind of financial benefit by conveniently ignoring human-caused climate change.

When someone says that the Earth has experienced this in the past so we should not be alarmed, I get frustrated because they seem to be ignorant of this fact:

Though natural amounts of CO2 have varied from 180 to 300 parts per million (ppm), today’s CO2 levels are around 380 ppm. That’s 25% more than the highest natural levels over the past 650,000 years. Today’s abnormally high temperatures and CO2 concentrations come from the burning of fossil fuels.

Even if we leave global warming out of the equation, the exponential population growth the world is experiencing is destroying ecosystems as well. More and more people are being born and living longer. Agriculture, resource exploitation and the increased need for living space all contribute to the systematic destruction of the world’s habitats and species.

Species Extinction Follows Habitat Destruction

When habitats go, species annihilation and extinction follow. Like termites slowly gnawing away at one’s home, humanity’s blind and unchecked advance on the environment will eventually bring the whole house down.

But population growth in itself does not need to be so damaging to habitats and therefore species. Population growth in conjunction with total lack of planning and disregard for its effects on various environments is the real problem. This disregard is sadly the result of short-sightedness, lack of oversight and the greedy desire for short-term financial gains.

Does it matter? I believe it does. There are most likely solutions to many of humanity’s problems in the very natural resources that we’re destroying. For example, we may find new energy solutions and medicines in environments we’re conquering. The biodiversity in the Amazon is considered a potentially excellent source for future medicines and pharmaceutical knowledge.

Humanity is like an ape with a club swinging wildly in a modern day living room. We have no idea what we’re destroying, and we never will unless we stop swinging. Our cleverness in developing technology and creating ways to live longer and better may be our downfall.

And there are most likely consequences that we simply don’t know now. Never mind being a tree-hugging liberal, never mind “going green”, never mind Democrats vs. Republicans, regardless of who you are, causing a global mass extinction, and not trying to stop it, is just wrong.

But there is hope. Many people work every day to educate others and to improve conservation and spread the word. There are technologies that are being developed or on the verge of being invented that could solve many conservation and habitat destruction issues. Long term planning often creates more financial abundance than short-term gains. Globally threatened species require a combination of conservation acts and collective action from large groups of people and nations who are willing to work together for a better future.

Consider this article like a man leaning out the window on that fateful night in 1964 to warn you that Catherine Genovese’s murder could be stopped if you just took some kind of action now.

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I have not seen Michael Moore’s new documentary called Sicko yet but I plan to. In the meantime, I have been witnessing the ridiculous uproar the mindless, parroting and UNcompassionate-conservative right have been making regarding Moore and this new movie.

First, how can anyone say Michael Moore is unpatriotic? Because he deosn’t like to see Detroit auto-workers’ jobs move overseas? Because he doesn’t want guns in schools? Because he dared question why the entire Bin Laden family was flown out of the U.S during the 9/11 aftermath even though all commercial planes across America were grounded and even though we immediately thought Osama was behind the attacks? Because he finds the current U.S. health care system sick?

When I hear a righty say Michael Moore is not a patriot, I am confident they are only repeating something they heard, that they didn’t really think it through. I recently read Simpleology and in it I was educated about how people use various verbal gymnastics to spread their opinions. One way is to call anyone who opposes you or your agenda ‘unpatriotic’. What a joke.

What makes Moore so very patriotic is that he has the balls and intelligence to suggest that his beloved country is making some mistakes and that we ought to look at all sides of a story to make America and every one of our lives as best as can be. The minute you stop questioning things is the minute you begin the slide into tyranny.

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I hate when you’re treated badly by a business, when you’re treated like you’re expendable, and there are lots more like you where you came from. Big businesses are famous for this, often treating you like a number. But all kinds of businesses do this.

My friend just told me an annoying story about one such business. Here’s his account of what recently happened:

He and his family stay at the Concorde Motel in Old Orchard Beach, ME every summer. They’ve been staying there for at least 15 years. They go back every year and have been loyal customers. Last year one of the family members had a medical emergency so they knew they wouldn’t be able to make it for their July 4th vacation because of it, The family member was going to be hooked up to an IV every day for a month and couldn’t travel anywhere. They called the Concorde and canceled three weeks in advance. The Concorde charged his family the entire amount even though they couldn’t make it and canceled weeks before and had a medical issue. They claimed it was their”policy”. He spoke directly with the owner, Claire Verreault, and she quoted “policy” and refused to budge.

Now, I can see that in general policies need to be followed, but at the height of the summer season where you could find others to rent it to and you’ve got three weeks to find a replacement, maybe you could make an exception. Especially since these were very long-time customers.

My friend called the Concorde during the July 4th nights he had originally booked and asked if they had any vacancies. The owner answered that all their rooms and suites were booked for the entire week. So basically, she got paid twice for the same room, once from my friend who canceled, and once from whoever ended up getting that same room. What a scam! What greed!

Concord at OOB - Fool Me Twice

This year, against all his instincts, he booked another suite for the same week at the Concord Motel again. He booked it 2 months in advance. This past week, while he was out of the country he got a few voice mails from the same woman owner of the Concorde stating that she had to move the family into a room within her house and was unable to give them the suite they reserved (and already paid a one night deposit for).

When my friend got back to the U.S. he called the Concord and asked that he be given any room other than the one in the house. The owner of the Concorde, Claire Verreault once again wouldn’t budge and couldn’t have cared any less about the fact that they were long time customers. She said they made a mistake in booking and they would be stuck with the bad room. He asked why they had to be bumped and why she was calling them then and not right after they booked it a few months ago, and she replied that they just found the error this past week. So sorry. She was rude and apathetic.

After arguing a few minutes and asking Claire if she could bump someone else, she simply hung up on him.

This is the kind of customer service that a customer of 15 years gets treated?! How could she be so rude? How could Claire be so short-sighted? How could Claire screw over this same family two years in a row?

Well, my friend vowed to tell anyone he knew this story and attempt to dissuade anyone from staying there. But since I have this blog and it WILL be found by anyone searching for the Concord Suites and Townhouses Motel online, I offered to tell his story too.

My opinion is: Don’t stay at the Concorde in Old Orchard, Maine, if anything goes wrong, the owner will not even think of being flexible or treating you with any respect. There are plenty of other places in Old Orchard.

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Howard Stern and Arty Lang often use this phrase when someone starts talking about some boring and lame story, “Why don’t you talk about that on the ‘Who Gives a Shit’ channel.

Here’s a few topics that should only be allowed on the ‘Who Gives a Shit’ channel:

• Anything to do with Paris Hilton.
• Anything to do with Anna Nicole Smith, here baby, or her lovers.
• Anything to do with Britney Spears, her partying, her kids or K-Fed.
• Anything to do with TomCat, Tom Cruise or his crazy Scientology.
• Anything to do with Lindsay Lohan
• Anything to do with Joey Buttafuco
• Anything to do with Prince Harry or his brother

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(update 6/10/07: There is justice after all, Paris got sent back to jail. OK, I can sleep tonight.)

The inequity in this country is painful to witness. Paris Hilton is famous for being famous. She’s everything that’s wrong with America. The top values of the average U.S citizen (and especially the young) are money, fame and looks. Since she’s got all three, and she is hailed and held in erroneous high regard. She was sent to jail and just got out after only 5 days!

She released a sex tape that was fully x-rated and then reaped the benefits of the additional fame it caused her. She showed up late to her court date, basically laughing at the judicial system. One of the biggest selling points of her show ‘The Simple Life’ is her acting dumb and privileged. This stresses style of substance, spoiledness and money over all else.

Then she was sentenced to jail for a month, and only lasted 5 days. Paris was released because of “medical reasons” and is now going to be under house arrest instead. She cried a lot, made herself sick, and got away with shitting on the judicial system. Now she’s going to be relaxing at her mansion instead.

Every incarcerated person should be seriously pissed off. Could there be a more stark and disgusting example of the inequity in this country? And it’s 2007!

The whole country has gone mad, since this kind of thing not only just happened but that it is going to be publicized to the hilt. So everyone will get the message that indeed, money fame and looks are to be cherished and act as a Get-Out-of-Jail Free Card and is your ticket to paradise.

How about valuing hard work, intelligence, education, motivation, tenaciousness, creativity, and character instead?

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Over the weekend I heard that a father and son went out hunting and the son killed a gigantic wild boar. It took over 10 bullets and the father was proud. Turns out the “wild” boar was actually someone’s pet and that it loved humans. It was probably not afraid of the father or son, maybe even wanting to approach them when they just fired away.

If you have a pet, imagine if this father and son hunted it and fired lots of rounds into it till it died, and then they rejoiced.

Of all the subjects I have opinions on, and there’s a lot, hunting really pisses me off to no end. These people who go out and hunt are bloodthirsty, insecure morons who need to dominate something to feel good and who use EVERY rationalization in the book to pretend it’s okay. “We’re controlling the population.”, “it’s a sport, just like any other sport.”, “We have to eat, right?”, “I use every part of the animal I kill.”

Gimme a break! We don’t live in the 1700’s anymore. There is absolutely no need to hunt. There are other much more humane ways to control populations, and produce food for people. Shooting an arrow into a deer which then sometimes runs off and dies a slow death is torture.

In my opinion, Ted Nugent is a dick. Read some of his opinions on hunting.

I mean, there are African services that actually have exotic cats penned up in a long, fenced in area, allowing hunters to just sit there and shoot them as they pass by. Ya got to be kidding me! This is sport? Give the cats a gun and tech them how to use it on you! Then it may be a sport.

I think people who do these kinds of things have a distinct and serious lack of empathy.

I gotta go, I can’t even stomach writing about this right now.

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First, Miss USA fell on her ass during this year’s Miss Universe Contest. It was kinda funny, but she got back up right away and kept her composure, which was good. I just saw that clip and a couple of other ones where she actually got booed! Why was she booed? Why were the Mexicans in the audience doing this? I’m thinking it may have been because of the recent immigration issues going on in the U.S., and that it’s fashionable to hate America these days.

Then why are so many Mexicans clamoring to illegally cross the U.S. border?! Why boo and yet almost die to get into the U.S.? Stay out if you don’t like the American policies. And be thanks you don’t get invaded and made to be the 51st state.

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In Seth Godin’s new book Small Is the New Big: and 183 Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas he posits this: What if it was mandated by federal law that all sales of SUV’s were outlawed and from now on every American would have to buy hybrid cars? What would happen?

We would probably halt or at least massively reduce global warming. And we would completely stop our dependence on foreign oil. I thought this sounded like a great idea.

Godin went on to say that this would be extremely difficult to actually accomplish, one reason being that Americans derive their self-seteem and indentity from their automobiles.

But why not? One thing I have always thought was how great it would be if Americans got behind the idea of finding alternative energy like we did when it came to mass-production of tanks and planes during WWII or the goal and accomplishment of sending a man to the moon.

If we could do this then we would probably halt or at least massively reduce global warming. And we would completely stop our dependence on foreign oil. This in turn would simplify our foreign relations problems, especially since Muslim extremists’ main beef with the U.S. is that we’re in the Middle East. No need for foreign oil, no need for being there anymore. Simple.

But alas, it ain’t gonna happen any time soon.

There are lots of intricate, complex and interrelated variables that makes it unlikely. But I think that a lot of it has to do with greed and short-sightedness. Making a national change like this would require sacrifice, on the part of ordinary Americans and corporations, the latter probably being more unwilling. Today’s buck is considered more important than tomorrow’s buck plus doing the right thing.

The oil companies would protest, the lobbyists would scream, the auto makers would howl, and the status quo would crumble. Such people and companies (who happen to have a lot of money and therefore influence) would come up with a million reasons to say these were bad ideas, ostensibly to “help” America. But they would be lies, because they are often greedy and short-sighted.

Sadly, this kind of thing applies on the micro level too. American companies also forsake long term (and often smarter) plans and sacrifice for short term gains. And we all suffer.

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Virginia Police conducting a drug investigation raided a Virginia house owned by Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick and lived in by Vick’s relative, Davon Boddie and found dozens of dogs, some injured and emaciated, as well as items associated with dog fighting, authorities said. More than 60 dogs were found in three buildings. Some appeared malnourished, scarred and injured, officials said.

Supposedly, a reporter named Mary Kay Mallonee of WAVY-TV said that investigators looking into the dog-fighting operation on Mike Vick’s property in Virginia have privately said that the story is going to get “even bigger” as it continues to unfold. Neighbors told Mallonee that Michael Vick is in town “all the time,” and clerks at a nearby store said that Vick comes in to buy “lots of supplies” for the dogs, including syringes.

Are you kidding me?  Who knows yet whether Vick is involved at all or not. But regardless of the person, ANYONE who’s into this kinda stuff is seriously sick. I just don’t get it. Are you that sub-human to enjoy the pure violence and suffereing of innocent animals? Do you not have any empathy whatsoever? Do you have that much primative bloodlust that you just have to watch dogs kill eachother? I saw some video of a few dog fights and it ain’t pretty.

I’m not even a dog owner, but I don’t need to be to just get a creeped out feeling about this. If there’s ever a doubt that Americans are just as fucked up as people all over the world, here’s proof. If these guys unemployed Iraqis, they could easily be the ones blowing U.S. soldiers’ arms off with IED’s. Or if they somehow made their way into Al-Queda, they very well could be the ones decapitating hostages with knives in front of cameras.

In any society, the potential for serious dysfunction is just a few circumstances away. If you’re human and your environment and circumstances are alinged in a certian way, there’s always a chance that you’ll end up behaving in absolutely crazy ways.

I don’t understand how these guys (Michael Vick, his relative or whoever) could be into dog fighting. I can’t see how being responsible for suffering could be okay for some, but maybe if I had their upbringing, lives and environment, I could understand.

But still, gimme a break. Stop being idiots. Why don’t you have fights to the death with other humans instead? At least you’d get the choice.

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I am in the middle of reading ‘God Is Not Great - How Religion Poisons Everything’ by Christopher Hitchens. So far, the book is excellent and really make you think. Here are a few points he makes in the book:

• Almost all stories of the birth of God, messiah or prophet involve a virgin giving