Have you seen this man? April 30, 2007

Imagine the police going to your barber and warning them not to pluck the eye brows of their male patrons.  That is what is happening in Iran as part of the crack down on immorality.  Take a look at the before and after picture above.  The eyebrows of this man are clearly sexier since having been groomed and one wonders how Iranian women can be expected to not want to rape a man that has two distinct eye brows.  Some evil barber seems to have also trimmed up the beard which can only lead to social chaos.  We must find out who this man is and the name of his barber so that a public example can be made of them.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/04/29/iranian.haricuts.reut/index.html

Google now coming out with scratch and sniff pictures. April 26, 2007

Is this not the most ridiculous picture for Google to put up with their story on prostate issues?  Do you see a prostate in this picture?  Thank god they at least had enough sense to crop the picture.  Looks like they quickly changed out the offending ass picture after I saw it.

Make love not war. April 26, 2007

What we need is more sex and less action (boom boom) in the Arab world.  If we can just get them to do each other more maybe they will screw with us less.  Is there any part of the world that is more up tight than the middle east?  I am sponsoring a sex drive care package to send to Iraq.  Please send lotions, sex toys, lingerie, how to manuals, and your best get it on music to me, and I will load up the station wagon and take it over there.  We MUST help the “Dr. Ruth” of the Muslim world get their grove on.  Just because thay can’t eat bacon is no reason they can’t make bacon.  See link for more information

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/04/25/muslim.sextalk/index.html

The most important thing you will read today. April 25, 2007

Use this link and read the most important thing you will read today.  

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/04/25/MNGRQPEQJM1.DTL

Since millions of Muslims believe the United States is at war with their religion, is it surprising there is an endless supply of suicide bombers?  The irony is that sending troops to take out Saddam has greatly bolstered these beliefs.  How can we change their minds?. 

1.  We must remove troops from Muslim countries in the Middle East, they are a giant recruitment poster for the terrorists. 

2.  Donate money and resources to restore damaged Muslim holy sites. 

3.  Strongly and loudly pressure Israel to return to it’s 1967 borders with no preconditions. 

4.  Pass an international bill of rights which would include freedom of religion provisions for individuals and governments. 

5.  Host a series of conferences to resolve long standing conflicts between Sunni’s and Sheia’s. 

6.  Challenge the practice of politicians around the world running on anti-American platforms and all the incite-full rhetoric that goes with it. 

7.  Stop the practice of backing  pro-western politicians or having the CIA manipulate things behind the scenes 

8.  Stop helping people like Saddam fight other nations in the region. 

9.  Pressure the nations of the middle east to create a multinational military to deter Kuwait like invasions and cross border terrorism.  

10.  Pray that Jesus will come into their hearts (just kidding).

Let me put this in another way.  If I told you I was going to take a hammer and go change the mind of an aggressor, you might say a hammer just might work.  If I told you I was going to walk up to ten men with a hammer and change their mind you would probably say I was a fool about to learn a lesson.

Aren’t you glad we didn’t kill him? April 24, 2007

Two hundred men and counting have been cleared of crimes due to DNA evidence.  When we serve on a jury most of us do our best in deciding guilt or innocence.  If the truth could be determined we wouldn’t need juries at all.  The court system is set up to make the best possible educated guess it can.  If the defense lawyer is incompetent, understaffed and under funded, than the outcome does not even come up to a best possible educated guess.  Judges sometimes make bad decisions and jurors bring a lot of baggage to the deliberation room.  My point is, how can anyone still believe that everyone on death row is absolutely guilty.  Even if it is just one man strapped down and executed, how would you feel if that man was you.  It is time to ban the death penalty again but permanently this time.  I guess I am getting soft in my middle age in more ways than one.  Here are 10 reasons to ban the death penalty. 

1.  The expense is exorbitant both to rural district attorneys and state prison systems. 

2.  Many countries will not extradite suspects to the U.S. due to death penalty. 

3.  You can’t reverse your decision. 

4.  Life in prison is in no way a lack of justice. 

5.  Victims families reside in a painful legal limbo while the convicted sit on death row for 5, 10, 15 years or more. 

6.  An eye for an eye is not a christian belief. 

7.  There is no evidence that the death penalty is a deterrent against crime. 

8.  There is only one thing worth taking a life for and that is to save another life. 

9.  It is better to be proactive instead of reactionary. 

10.  It is reasonable to believe that some Innocent people are being put to death. 

If someone I know was murdered I would want the killer to spend the rest of their life in a not too comfortable prison.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/23/dna.exoneration.ap/index.html

Demand due diligence now! April 23, 2007

 As much as I hate to admit it the human race is probably confined to our little gem in the universe.  A handful of people may one day live on the moon or mars for short periods of time.  In a hundred years a few brave souls may even drift off in a generations ship to try and reach a viable planet light years away.  If you want to really stretch the bounds of credibility you can cling to string theory and imagine ships going into black holes.  What ever far fetched sci-fi story you cling to it would still leave a population of 6 billion and growing on earth to deal with their reality.  The actions we take or don’t take now can make the lives of our great great grandchildren far better, or far worse.  Look at what our grandfathers did with social security.  They should have set it up as a forced savings program instead of an entitlement program, and not allowed politicians to raid it.  People only lived to age 65 when Soc. Sec. started but someone could have surmised that life expectancy would  go well past 65.  Policy decisions must factor in long term thinking.  Now we need some people to look forward a 100 years and pass some laws to help future generations deal with some stark realities.  There seems to be few in power that care about anything past the next quarterly report or election.  For example, a mass transit system that would work well for the America of 2050 may require some ground work today.  Politicians and corporations will not give the far future any thought unless we ask them the hard questions.  If we don’t force them it just won’t happen.  I would like to see an annual state of the union report that looks 100 years into the future.  It would take current trends and estimate environmental conditions, resources and major issues.  And to keep them honest, ha ha, I would also include 10 year projections to double check and refine the forecasting methods.  The effort and cost of long term planning is very low while the benefits could be ginormous.

Do you compete through your kids? April 20, 2007

 

Do you ever feel like some people use their kids to compete with the Joneses.  People have an irrational fear their children are not achieving as much as their neighbors kids.  It starts before the prodigies are even born.  Some expectant mothers play classical music against their bellies thinking they can get a jump on the other moms.  When they are a little older some families spend almost every day shuttling the kids between music lessons, sports, foreign language instruction, tutoring etc. etc.  That’s on top of their regular school time and homework.  The whole process can create stress and financial hardship.  Unstructured play and learning is squeezed out because there is just no time.  It continues all the way through college where the pressure is intense to go to the “best” schools.  The irony is that an employer really wants graduates who have a good attitude, work well with others, good learning skills and will stay with the company.  You could be an Ivy league graduate with $200,000 in student loan debt and not have those qualities.  In a similar vein, birthday parties are another way parents compete through their kids.  If the party is not an elaborate affair costing hundreds of dollars than you just are not keeping up.  Use the link below to read about one families experience and their need to have their kids be the best at all costs.  As for me I have a wish list for my children that is not so competitive.  When my kids are grown I want them to be happy,kind, thoughtful well adjusted adults.  Those traits seem even more important after what happened with the Virgina Tech shooting.  Yes I am saving for their college and it would be great if they were financially comfortable.   But I don’t want them to feel they are not good enough or become people who don’t put people first.  I have to get off line now, my pre-k kids have assigned homework to do. 

http://biz.yahoo.com/hmoney/070411/040507_onefamily_april_moneymag.html?.v=1&.pf=family-home

A warning to parents and teenagers. April 19, 2007

This story will break your heart.  Attached is a very sad story and a danger I knew nothing about.  Please pass on the information to teenagers or parents of teenagers you know.  When my kids get old enough I am going to have them read accounts like this and have a serious talk with them.

See link:   http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/dustoff.asp

Picture and a story # 1 April 18, 2007

Here is a picture and a story of mine.  Around 15 years ago a co-worker of mine came to me with a deal.  A guy who had recently worked in the company cafeteria had offered to sell my friend a stamp collection he found behind a vacant car wash.  This guy said he had been drinking and wondered upon a bunch of junk, and that sounded like him.  My friend said we should each give this guy half the money he was asking and we could try and sell the stamps.  He had seen the binder and it seemed like it could be worth something.  I said ok but when it was time to give this guy the $100 bucks each, my friend said he didn’t want to go through with it.  This guy said he really needed the money to get his stuff that his landlord had locked up in the garage apartment because he hadn’t paid his rent.  So I said I would drive him to his old house.  The landlord was pissed off but took the money and we went to get his stuff.  All he had was an old suitcase with his cloths and a few plastic dishes.  He confronted the landlord because he said his hand gun was missing.  The landlord denied taking the gun and I droped this guy off at the bus stop never to seen again.   Feeling like a manipulated idiot I took the stamp collection and started to look through it.  There seemed to be hundreds of stamps going back to the late 1800’s.  Some were historical stamps like WWII images of Hitler or beautiful stamps from Liberia.  I went to the library and found some books which had pictures of stamps and their value.  It was a lot of fun to find the matching stamp in the book and see what it was worth.  What I quickly found out was that all the stamps, even 100 year old stamps were only valued at a few cents each.  I had hours of fun researching the stamps.  Many of the stamps are a little piece of history like the 1942 Iraq stamp above.  I don’t know who the boy in the stamp was, a prince perhaps?  That’s a picture and a story of mine, send me one of yours at blogatatude@gmail.com

Virgina Tech shooting, who’s fault? April 17, 2007

 

When there is a terrible tragedy like the mass murder at Virgina Tech we want to know what caused it and what can we do about it.  In my city and around the country it is not uncommon to hear of a jealous boyfriend shoot someone and then they are shot or take their own life.  As horrible as these are we can understand the motive involved.  It is one person killing someone they know whom they are mad at.  In cases like Virgina Tech, total strangers are killed and we have to struggle for the motive.  They often say the men or boys were loaners so is this their way of finally getting back at society for their isolation?  Does prior press coverage of similar cases have them thinking everyone will know about their life and perceived injustices?  I know some people want to try and tie in the subject of gun control, immigration or the war in Iraq etc. to explain this tragedy.  You can only understand this from the point of view of the people doing it.  I can only think of one reason why strangers would be targeted in this way; because they know it will make big news and everyone they know will know about it.  But can we tell the press not to cover the story?  Gun control won’t stop it.  There are no fool proof security measures that could be put in place.  I would suggest two ways to try and reduce these kind of attacks.  One level would be a focused one where people we think are at risk could be educated on ways to deal with stress and relationships.  Also teachers and others could be trained to look for the inevitable signs that in hind sight seem to always be present.  The other way would be on a societal level where we foster nonviolence  from childhood on up.  Create a hostile environment for hostility.  Teach the bullies and make sure you include the loaners.  In this way we would be striking at the source of the problem before it becomes one.

Attack of the tater tots. April 13, 2007

 

I had posted my diet journal for thursday and I thought I was done.  The thing is I am in enemy territory staying with my sister in Georgia.  My sisters decide at 10:30 they were going to go out and get something to eat.  I said I did not want anything.  They come back with a large order of tater tots for everyone, including me.  I said I will have just one tot to not be rude and I thought I could do that.  I quickly ate the whole large order.  Feeling bad I started on the large bowl of Easter Chocolates on the table.   I love Jesus but will Easter never end?  Now it’s Friday morning and the enemy troops will attack soon, must be strong until I get back to home base.

Britain to put people in bad neighbor colonies. April 12, 2007

 

Tony Blair wants to round up all the really bad neighbors and put them into “Managed properties” where they will learn some manners.  I don’t know if this is more like the movie “Escape from New York” or a neo Australian bad neighbor colony.  Me I love the idea and I want it in my city.  My neighbor has three little ankle biter dogs that drive me crazy.  As soon as I walk out into my back yard the dog pound chorus takes off.  I can be out there a half hour and they will bark for a half hour.  That is an interference in my ability to enjoy my back yard.  They are so small some times I look out and see one of them has crawled under the fence looking for a place to crap in my yard.  When I go out and chase them back to the fence I don’t know who has more fun, me, the dog, or my wife.  I shouldn’t admit this on the internets but evil thought have crossed my mind.  Anybody have a good BB gun I can barrow?

 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,265294,00.html

Man’s nose cut off in attack by both wife’s April 11, 2007

 

A Saudi man who threatened his two wife’s that he would get a third wife if they didn’t get along was then attacked by both his wife’s and they removed part of his nose.  My take away from this story is this; who the heck wants to live with up to 4 wife’s?  In Saudi Arabia the law allows up to 4 wife’s and I bet I know how they came up with that number.  The guys with 5 or more wife’s were dying off left and right.  The poor Saudi guy comes home from his job counting barrels and money and all of wife’s meet him at the door.  Before he even has a chance to take off his head gear wife #1 says wife #2 is using her jewelry, # 3 is mad because she thinks # 4 is his favorite in bed and why didn’t he order more Viagra?  All 4 are mad he doesn’t make more money and why can’t they get the new Mercedes?  The brother of wife # 2 was arrested and he had better call somebody and wife # 1 has a cousin that needs a loan and # 3 thinks the driver is rude.  This goes on all night until it’s time to go to spin the bottle and go to bed.  No thank you.  I respect other cultures and I am not interested in weather they change their way of life what so ever.  It is not my place to say a culture that prohibits a woman’s right to vote is wrong for example.  As for me, one case of PMS in the house per month is plenty.

See story

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070410/od_nm/saudi_dc;_ylt=Aqr1KUbFO_BRl1XiqE7SQFEZ.3QA

Imus be an idiot! April 10, 2007

 

Here comes the circus.  In ring one we have Mel Gibson because Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.  In ring two we have Michael Richards (Kramer) who proved yelling the word nigger on stage to black men wasn’t actually funny to anyone.  And now in ring three Don Imus wants to meet with the once nappy ho’s so he can apologize.  These men all want us to know they are good people, have done a lot of good things and are not racist or anti Semitic.  Nobody cares if Hitler set up animal shelters for stray cats.  One has nothing to do with the other.  And what is the definition of a good man and is that what is at issue?  I don’t care if Imus is a good man, I just want his to watch his mouth.  Jesse Jackson, Al sharpton and Jewish leaders have called for the end to these men’s careers, either by being fired or a shut out buy the entertainment industry.  That kind of punishment would create a McCarthy kind of oppressive political correctness cloud everyone of us would have to live under. Is it fair to end someones career because they shot their mouth off?  In the case of Richards and Imus they were in the process of doing their stand up comedy and shock jock radio show.  The public appetite for comedians and morning DJ’s has been for progressively more shocking and cutting edge language.  The public has been so bombarded with words like ho by video’s and music it seems disingenuous to be outraged when the words creep into our collective vocabulary and people of all races use them.    If Imus is fired he becomes the poster boy and talking head for free speech.  We do need to strongly speak out against it or we encourage more of the same and people will be hurt by the mean spirited words.  I like to see these guys squirm, apologize, and put some money where their mouth was.  If he dosen’t talk this way again maybe he can help discourage other people from being hateful.  Imus is a very wealthy man as they all are.  I think Imus and Bernard McGuirk and their employer should make a sizable donation to the Rutgers women’s basketball program.  After that they will remain on public opinion probation for the rest of their lives.  

A murder most fowl, death by enema! April 10, 2007

A woman is accused of killing her husband by giving him an enema with alcohol.  That is one more thing I am pretty sure will never happen to me, and here’s why.  My wife wouldn’t give me an enema even if HER life depended on it.  If she comes up to me with a full enema bag and a smiling face, I will know I am about to die.  It also won’t happen to me because I prefer to taste my alcohol on the way down; and god was very very smart to design my anus without taste buds.  I find enemas about as sexy as I do adults wearing diapers as some stupid sex game.  I like my alcohol ice cold or on the rocks.  If I am going to drink a martini it is going to have an olive with a large tooth pick through it.  I wouldn’t know what to say while receiving the enema, and that could be awkward.  If none of these reasons apply to you, than please watch your back.

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=local&id=5191397