Lord Of The Ring

From Wonder Woman.

True Story from Houston Medical Center: A man went to the hospital to have his wedding ring cut off from his penis. According to the Nurse attending, the patient's girl friend found the ring in his pants pocket and she got so mad at him, she used petroleum jelly to slip the ring on his penis while he was asleep. I don't know what's worse...

1) Having your girl friend find out you're married.
2) Explaining to your wife how your wedding ring got on your penis.
3) Or finding out your penis fits through your wedding ring.

Vegansexuals

Vox Day's take on people that will couple only with those that share their distaste for unconnected meat.

Trapping Blogger Gas To Reduce Global Warming

"...if anyone can figure out how to trap our blogger gas so it can be transferred to our vehicles, then we would be listening upright and with considerably more restraint on our anuses."

Author unknown: Found here.

Van Morrison - Kingdom Hall

Most people have no idea what goes on in a Jehovah's Witnesses Kingdom Hall. But I have sure wondered for some reason. Van Morrison has an idea, but not sure if it's accurate or not. They may be having more fun at church than they do all week. Nevertheless, great song. From his 1978 Wavelength album.

A Tangy Aphrodisiac

Red Meat exists in my Favorites. You can explore Max Cannon's madness for many hours if you dare. Click the cartoon to read it.

Get A Human

Tired of waiting ad nauseum for a real person to answer the phone when you are needing something accomplished? This site claims to have the solutions to cut through the BS and number chains that many businesses require of their customers... simply to avoid helping us promptly.

Get a human.

HT: Reality Carnival

Spare Change Projects

Perhaps more productive than blogging!

Thanks Reality Carnival (in my Favorites to the right).

Like and Death and Taxes...

...eventually we all get the invitation. I got mine in the mail yesterday. Not content to be mere Boomers, we're "vintage". 50 is the new 35 and all that crap said to make us feel better.

Sufjan Stevens - Jacksonville

From his 2005 Illinois album. Listen to it all a few times for greater appreciation. Not just a song, but a sort of of a musical masterpiece IMHO.



Jacksonville

I'm not afraid of the black man running
He's got it right he's got a better life coming
I don't care what the captain said I fold it right at the top of my head
I lost my sight and the state packs in
I follow my heart and it leads me right to Jackson

Oh Keller oh oh oh
She gave us a medal she gave us a map
Oh Canner Row, oh oh oh
If seeing is right, then look where you're at

I'm not afraid of Nichol's Park
I ride the train and I ride it after dark
I'm not afraid to get it right
I turn around and I give it one more try I said things that I meant to say
The bandstand chairs and the Dewey Day parade
I go out to the golden age
The spirit is right and the spirit doesn't change

Oh Keller oh oh oh
She gave us mirror she gave us a map
Oh Canner Row, oh oh oh
If seeing is right then look where you're at

Andrew Jackson, all I'm asking
Show us the wheel and give us the wine
Woohoo! Woohoo!
Raise the banner, Jackson hammer
Everyone goes to the capitol line
Woohoo! woohoo!
Colored preacher, nice to meet you!
The spirit is here and the spirit is fine!
Woohoo! Woohoo!
Education, ask the nation
You gave us our sight and the hearing is fine
Woohoo! woohoo!
Andrew Jackson all I'm asking
Give us the wheel and give us the wine

Who Can View Starved Bodies As Attractive?

Who are the mad men and women who are behind this sick phenonmenon and these sick "women?" Have these people never seen the survivors of Nazi Death Camps who resemble these people? Yuk. Give me Marilyn Monroe, Raquel Welch, and T.V. any day of the week.

Forever Young

Stolen with attribution to Wake Up Tiger.

Edisto Island, South Carolina (July 2007 Vacation)

The house we stayed at was memorialized in this book which we stumbled upon completely by accident. The Pink House by Kate Salley Palmer.

Spotty Posting

Posting will be spotty in the next week or so. Will be doing pina colada, gin and tonic, and margarita unpaid projects on a remote beach in SC. Stay tuned though. There just may be a wireless connection available.

The High Llamas

If you want a happy, happy, and happier song. From their Can Cladders album this year.

Going Without

On January 1, 2005, Sara Bongiorni's family embarked on a yearlong boycott of Chinese products. They wanted to see for themselves what it would take, in will power and creativity, to live without the world's fastest growing economy—and whether it could be done at all.

A Year Without "Made in China" chronicles this fascinating and frustrating journey, and provides you with a thought-provoking and thoroughly entertaining account of life in a vast and slippery global economy of infinite complexity. Drawing on her years as an award-winning journalist, Bongiorni fills this book with engaging stories and anecdotes of her family's attempt to outrun China's reach, and does a remarkable job of taking a decidedly big-picture issue—China's emerging status in the global economy—and breaking it down to a personal level. (From the Book Jacket)

Cold Play - Spies

From thier 2000 Parachutes album.

Chaos Theory

"I'm beginning to think peace is something we made up to keep us from being satisfied with all this luscious chaos." Brian Andreas

They Want The Touch

Interesting story (HT:Drudge) about how vinyl records may be making a comeback. Key point:

"I'm still not sure about the MP3 generation. You can have a full hard drive and nothing to show for it. Record collections are very personal. You can view into a person's soul really."

My older brother's record collection was so personal to him, he had to build a locked chest to keep me from listening to them! Not so sure I understood his soul from his music, but he had some good ones.

My albums remain in my attic now and I've never thrown one away, which is sort of telling what they meant to me. Having time to sit and listen to album as well as hold and read the album covers was one of life's pleasures to me and I'm certain many others of my generation. Holding a CD case was OK but they are getting tough to read anymore!

Rock on.

New Gift Idea! Remember "Tickle Me Elmo?"

You've heard of ping-pong balls? How about a Ping Ping Doll?
Buy Now for Christmas!
Story here.

How Do You Do This?

Very carefully. The photos are real. The story checked out.

al-Qaida's Back

or so says a report that is coming out soon. Read AP story here.

"Asked on ABC's "Good Morning America" to explain al-Qaida's continuing strength nearly six years after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, Chertoff said, "It reflects the fact that just as we improve our defenses, the enemy tries to improve its defenses and rebuild itself."
Al-Qaida is "considerably operationally stronger than a year ago" and has "regrouped to an extent not seen since 2001," the counter terrorism official said, paraphrasing the report's conclusions. "They are showing greater and greater ability to plan attacks in Europe and the United States."

"The group also has created "the most robust training program since 2001, with an interest in using European operatives," the official quoted the report as saying."

What are regular Joes like me supposed to think when we hear this?

If this report is anywhere near accurate, it's findings will be another sign that the Bush Administration is completely inept in leading this country.

This is what this administration ostensibly has been about since 9/11!

Billions upon billions upon billions of dollars have been spent on "The War on Terror." $758 Billion. Yet somehow all of those resources could not prevent a rag-tag bunch of Islamists from getting back in the game?

So, if we haven't done it by now, \we are done for. We ought to just hang it up and expect to lose. What a complete and total waste of American lives and American treasure.

This whole failure must be laid at the feet of GW Bush and his people. How could this happen?

And oh yeah, our schools suck too. We are more stupid then ever too. God help us.

Constructive Negative Feeback Can Lead To Better Self-Esteem ...

(Click on model for larger view)

...If the truth of what we are being told can break through our denial.

I'm participating in a leadership book club that I started at work. We're reading a very good book: True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership by Bill George with Peter Sims.

Found this passage from chapter 4 and decided that it might be worth drawing out.

“We must get outside our egos and listen to feedback we don’t want to hear. Young people often have not developed the self-esteem to see their mistakes and take accountability for them. When you can do that and be open to new ways of doing things, the change you can accomplish is almost unlimited. The discovery process never ends.” Bill George from True North

Just for The Fun of It

Do it. The Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun.

HT: Fred

Urban Legend Debunked

(Ready to mix it in.)

From a wire report found in the Augusta Chronicle, July 11, 2007, page 2A.

"Chinese cat lovers mobilized online to save a truckload of 800 cats from the cooking pot, a newspaper reported Tuesday."

MGF says the only meat one should eat at a Chinese restaurant is shrimp.

Peter Frampton - Doobie Wah

From his wildly popular 1976 Frampton Comes Alive album. Frampton goofing on my boys, the Doobie Brothers.

My Very Own All-Star

Team is 1-1 in their first tournament. It is do or die tomorrow night.

Update: We died last night, 4-2. Two two-run homers by one big boy did us in. Season over. My boy wants to hit with his new bigger bat this evening since he is moving up next year to another level, "Pony League."

Experience The Summer of Love

40 years later. Watch the PBS show.

I was there. Well, not participating, but "there" nonetheless. As a 10-14 year old boy. My brother would have football games in San Francisco and inevitably my dad would drive us (all his 8 kids) down into Haight/Ashbury in what we kids (not so affectionately) called the "retard bus," which was actually a pretty nice customized Dodge Van. We would ogle the hippies from the inside of our protective (and very conventional) cocoon.

In the late sixties we would also go to the Santa Cruz Beach and Boardwalk quite a bit and we were able to get an even closer look and smell at all the people and the action. Lots of dirty bare feet, cats on leashes, "love-beads," headbands, paisley... as I recall.

HT: Covert Curiosity

Most Suicide Bombers Are Muslim

and 9 other Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature. From Psychology Today.

Suicide missions are not always religiously motivated, but according to Oxford University sociologist Diego Gambetta, editor of Making Sense of Suicide Missions, when religion is involved, the attackers are always Muslim. Why? The surprising answer is that Muslim suicide bombing has nothing to do with Islam or the Quran (except for two lines). It has a lot to do with sex, or, in this case, the absence of sex.

What distinguishes Islam from other major religions is that it tolerates polygyny. By allowing some men to monopolize all women and altogether excluding many men from reproductive opportunities, polygyny creates shortages of available women. If 50 percent of men have two wives each, then the other 50 percent don't get any wives at all.

So polygyny increases competitive pressure on men, especially young men of low status. It therefore increases the likelihood that young men resort to violent means to gain access to mates. By doing so, they have little to lose and much to gain compared with men who already have wives. Across all societies, polygyny makes men violent, increasing crimes such as murder and rape, even after controlling for such obvious factors as economic development, economic inequality, population density, the level of democracy, and political factors in the region.

However, polygyny itself is not a sufficient cause of suicide bombing. Societies in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean are much more polygynous than the Muslim nations in the Middle East and North Africa. And they do have very high levels of violence. Sub-Saharan Africa suffers from a long history of continuous civil wars—but not suicide bombings.

The other key ingredient is the promise of 72 virgins waiting in heaven for any martyr in Islam. The prospect of exclusive access to virgins may not be so appealing to anyone who has even one mate on earth, which strict monogamy virtually guarantees. However, the prospect is quite appealing to anyone who faces the bleak reality on earth of being a complete reproductive loser.

It is the combination of polygyny and the promise of a large harem of virgins in heaven that motivates many young Muslim men to commit suicide bombings. Consistent with this explanation, all studies of suicide bombers indicate that they are significantly younger than not only the Muslim population in general but other (nonsuicidal) members of their own extreme political organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah. And nearly all suicide bombers are single.

HT: Fred

Check Out The "World Clock"

Here. Five-Star interesting rating.

Beetween

Marital Tech Support

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance --particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5 and then installed undesirable programs such as NFL 5.0, NBA 3.0, and Golf Clubs 4.1.

Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system.

I've tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?

Signed, Desperate

Dear Desperate:

First keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an Operating System. Please enter the command: "http: I Thought You Loved Me.html" and try to download Tears 6.2 and don't forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update.

If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5. But remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0 or Beer 6.1.

Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will download the Snoring Loudly Beta.
Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother-in-law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources).

Also, do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend Food 3.0 and Hot Lingerie 7.7.

If all else fails, drop Nagging 5.3, and replace it with the more advanced Bitching 6.0. It has resulted in better responses.

Good Luck, Tech Support

Grow Your Own

Dude, New Mexico has legalized medical marijuana use and the health department surprised law enforcement by allowing patients to grow their own iPot at the house. Story here.

I came out as a libertarian on legalizing drug sale/use to MGF today. I've thought it for quite some time. I'm in good company with William F. Buckley on this one.

I do buy the argument that taking all the penalties away for use and distribution will explode the drug cartels, tunnels from Mexico, machine gun complex that has us in a perpetual "war." Decriminalize it all and heavily tax it like any other "sin"-product. You will always have your hard-core junkies as we have always had our hard-core alcoholics. If alcohol is legal and taxed and tolerated, I don't see a rational honest distinction between it and currently illegal drugs. Heavy duty crime and corruption comes from the underground trade of drugs. Bring it out of the shadows and support the addicted who want to be helped with tax revenue gained.

Madonna's Buff

From the "Live Earth" concert this past weekend.

Press One for English

Is it too much to ask?



HT: My Ex-law, Lovemudbug

Blue Sky Dream

Blue Sky Dreams by David Beers. I graduated from high school with Mr. Beers. He was featured on This American Life today and read from his book. You can listen.

He tells well the story from his book of how the Santa Clara Valley in California, known before that as "The Valley of Earth's Delight," got cemented over to become "Silicon Valley." It was a valley of many many fruit tree orchards.

I grew up closer to old downtown San Jose, so I didn't have the experience of moving into a brand new tract house. Beers tells it like it was.

Body Art

Vox Day on "body art". It most certainly is prevalent these days.

Question to ponder: If it's scriptural, is it still a tramp stamp?

The Fray - Over My Head (Cable Car)

Who says a 12 year old can't turn his dad on to a good tune?