WTF Friday Rant Volume 1 Issue 5

Thanks to all to have stopped by this year. When I started this blog in April, it was something to let off some stream from the stress of life. I must confess that did not do a very good job of keeping up with the writing and did not even post for about 4 months. The election brought back the passion of writing and through the encouragement of you, my readers, I plan to continue and write everyday on whatever subjects catch my eye. I wish a Happy and Peaceful New Year for everyone and may God continue to bless each and every one of us.

Now on to Friday's Main Event, the WFT Friday Rant. Enjoy as always and be safe tonight. Later.........

The "Evil Empire" helps out, good show Bill.
http://www.informationweek.com/story/

The Little Wooden Puppet is off his meds again.
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/news/stories/s1274897.htm

What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
http://www.local6.com/news/4038536/detail.html

Switzerland isn’t neutral after all, they hate Paris Hilton too.
http://www.nypost.com/gossip/37456.htm

Kofi Kaught Kapping (Read the entire press release, it's worth your time.)
http://www.un.org/apps/sg/offthecuff.asp?nid=660

Well said John, but try to keep up please, your about 2 days behind the BS.
http://www.nypost.com/commentary/37436.htm

Monopoly money or real money, doesn’t matter in Turkey, it's all the same.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/12/30/155058.shtml

OBL gets permission slip for a nuke.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/12/29/125349.shtml
http://madtechspeaks.blogspot.com/2004/12/11

What a difference 5 years and millions of PR dollars makes!
The Good
The Bad
Sorry no Ugly Today

It's tough all over, Snow White cuts back
http://reuters.excite.com/article/20041227/

Goodnight Sweet Prince, Rest In Peace Artie
http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/

Haloscan

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.
God Help Us All. Later..................

Do You Want The Help Or Not? Or Another Example Of Runaway Stupidity

I have been uncharacteristically quiet on the Tsunami disaster simply because I felt it was being covered ad nausea by the BS and I had been at a loss for words other then my prayers for all of the victims. Then I read this article today and almost lost it.

First of Clare (Fat Chick's Name), who the f*ck are you to criticize any one's efforts to help those suffering people? Why on Earth would you turn away help when it's needed most? Are you working with the "enlightened" government of Sri Lanka and following their lead in turning away help?

Let me share some the stupidity of Clare (Still a Fat Chick's Name). Read on.........

“Only really the UN can do that job,” she told BBC Radio Four’s PM program.
“It is the only body that has the moral authority. But it can only do it well if it is backed up by the authority of the great powers.”

So the UN is the only moral authority now? Well that’s it folks, pull the plug, turn off the lights, put a fork in us cause we done. According to the High Priestess of Morality Clare Short the UN is the only body that has the moral authority to help anyone. Hurry and call all of the thousands of aid agencies and people who are helping on their own and tell them to sit tight and wait for the moral authority of the UN to ride to the rescue.

Yes, I am mocking Ms. Short badly but is it not scary that in a time of such great needs that some people think like this woman and politicize the suffering of millions. I have no words to describe the sorrow in my soul for the people affected by this tragedy, I can only pray for them. Please visit the South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami blog; they have links to many aid groups that could use your help. May God Bless and watch over all the victims and survivors.
Later...........

A Decision Made

Well, I have decided to move to Haloscan for my commenting and also add a tag board, due to reader requests. I would ask those of you more versed in the nuances of blogging to please shower me with your wisdom, advice, tips, or just plain smart ass remarks in regards to Haloscan or Tag-boards, all other snide remarks will be dealt with in their own time.

Your nuggets of knowledge are appreciated in advance. I plan to make the change on or around the 1st of January as I am the beneficiary of a 3 day weekend. I will be back with the WTF Friday Rant tomorrow.
So until then keep on, keeping on..........

Mexican Solution To A Shitty Economy: Move To The USA

There is not much in this world that shocks me but one thing that does on a regular basis is complete honesty by a politician. Often I find future topics through the wonderful invention of Google news alerts; this story comes courtesy of one of those alerts.

I literally almost fell out of my chair when reading this story about the sad state of the Mexican economy. The mayor of Mexico City is quoted as saying the following: “In agreeing with Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, on the need to change Mexico’s economic model before there is a civil conflict, López Obrador said that the only explanation for people in Mexico not having protested in light of more than 20 years of economic stagnation is because escape valves, such as immigration, have been found.”

So basically, the reason the Mexican people have not pressured their government for reform and policies that would improve their economy, is because they can go north to the United States and find a better paying job. Gee, I am no economist but that is f*cked up.

The U.S. economy and businesses are nowhere near innocent in this sordid tale. Our businesses, big and small, hunger for cheap, no questions asked, labor. While we continue to quench our thirst for cheap labor and send un-told amounts of foreign aid south to Mexico there is no incentive to change the current system of wide-spread corruption.

The other component to this equation is the fact that immigrates, legal and illegal alike, send billions and billions of dollars south to their families to Mexico. I have absolutely no problem with people providing for their families, regardless of their immigration status, but with all that money flowing south it acts as a double hit to our economy. Not only is that money not spent here in the U.S. but often immigrates, legal and illegal, place an enormous strain on a health care system, education, police, fire, and social services that can not deal with the influx. Some would say that we should just increase funding for those departments but more often then not, those who are here from Mexico do not pay taxes in to the system and we end up throwing money at the problem without any counterbalance from tax revenue.

Now I can hear people asking themselves why should I care about this? Or I live in, name a Midwest or Northeastern state; we don’t have an illegal immigration problem. Hello, open your freaking eyes!!!! The fact that we have an illegal immigration problem is just a symptom of the larger issue of not being able to control our borders. I don’t want to go off on a tangent but let me cite two examples from history. The Roman Empire finally collapsed in part to Rome’s inability to control their vast borders. The Great Wall of China was built at an enormous human cost to prevent the consistent invasion of China from the west. Remember this quote, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it”. Something like that, it’s late and I can’t find the exact quote on the net.

The fact of the matter is that illegal immigration is everyone’s problem. The effects of migration on the Mexican economy are twofold. On one hand the pressure is removed with regard to zero economic growth since those who would draw from public aid go north, and the other effect being that those who are in the U.S. send about US$17 billion to Mexico annually.

Here in Arizona the voter recently passed Proposition 200, it states that proof of U.S. citizenship is required to vote in all elections and to receive public benefits. It was challenged in court and upheld thankfully as a valid law. Now you might ask what public aid is defined as, glad you asked. Public aid is defined as benefits that include public assistance such as food stamps, cash assistance, and housing assistance, basically anything that Arizona taxpayers pay for with the important exception of Police, Fire, Health Care and Education since those are in part funded by federal money given to Arizona. The full law is listed here if you care to read it and the “English” translation.

The hope is that this new law will serve as a deterrent to those who come north in order to collect welfare and send money south to Mexico. I don’t really believe it will work, since the state agency charged with the verification of citizenship prior to the payment of public aid is ripe with corruption and the sad fact that obtaining false documents is much too easy.

My hope for the President is that he abandons this “guest worker” program and puts forth a real plan to reform immigration and secure our borders. And for the rest of the country that has been blind or ignorant to the immigration problem, here’s your wake-up call. Next time you’re out and about on your daily routine, look around and you will be surprised by number of immigrants doing jobs that “no American wants”. The fact that we have people on public aid that contribute nothing is enough to dispute that lie, but I will save that for a slow news day. Sorry for going long but I have a vested interest in this issue since I live a mere 3 hours from the U.S./Mexican border. Enjoy the links, later…………

When Liberals Attack Liberals

Can I just say that I miss the entertaining politics of Chicago? There is nothing like sitting back with a beer and listening to the latest nugget of wisdom from Mayor Daly, which for the record I think does a fantastic job running a city as diverse as Chicago.

The latest entry in to the category of "When Liberals attack Liberals" comes to us courtesy of a man who disagrees with the city's efforts to recycle Christmas trees. Seems that if you bring your Christmas tree in for mulching, you get a year's worth of "Blue Bags" and a nice bag of mulch. Let me briefly explain the "Blue Bag" program and if I am wrong (since I live in Arizona now, I could be.) I am sure that Chicagoans will correct me.

The "Blue Bag" program is a way to encourage recycling in the city of Chicago. But being Chicago, you have to pay for the needed "Blue Bags" in order to participate, see that's the Chicago way. I don't remember if the program was running 4 years ago when I last lived there, but if it was I was not participating. See, as much as I love the environment, I am not paying extra for some pretty "blue bag" on top of all the Chicago city taxes and fees, don't even get me started on the whole city parking sticker thing.

So Chicago land’s most loved/hated activist and atheist Rob Sherman has nothing better to do but criticize the Mayor's efforts to make Chicago green. You may remember Rob from his efforts to remove crosses from the city seals of Zion and Rolling Meadows (Chicago Suburbs). He feels that the city is unfairly rewarding Christians by giving the "Blue Bags" free to those who bring in a Christmas tree. He further explains that since the Christmas tree is a well-known Christian symbol the policy is most unfair since "No self-respecting atheist or Jew or Hindu puts up a Christmas tree in their home unless they are Christian wannabes."

The city caved in and changed the policy to give "Blue Bags" to anyone who just shows up at the city's recycling centers with a "large" bag of recyclable material. Question, what constitutes a "large" bag? I can see another protest in the wings. I suspect that Rob is a member of the ACLU and this was a personal project of his but he would not have failed to call in the big guns if the city had told her to take a hike. I can imagine the conversation with City Hall went something like this:

Rob: Your Blue Bag /Holiday tree policy is unfair to non-Christians and I don't think you should charge for the bags if we don't bring a Holiday tree to the recycling centers.

City Hall: Well we only want to encourage participation in the program.

Rob: Give the bags for free to non-Christians or we are going to have a problem.

City Hall: Look, we already lose money on this program because no one participates, I don't think we can do that.

Rob: Hey, wise up. You saw what I did to Zion and Rolling Meadows right? Don't make me call the ACLU.

City Hall: Ok, we give up.

The link to the story is below, enjoy a good chuckle. Hat Tip to Mrs. Mad Tech for the article. Later....................

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0412280272dec28,1,806834.story

When Will The MSM Do Their Job?

Ran across this the other day and meant to post it earlier. The link goes to a story with some extracts from yet another first-hand account of the taking of Fallujah. Funny how these stories never seem to make it to the MSM. Enjoy the story, the link is also below. Later..................

http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleID.18353/article_detail.asp

North Korea: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

Reports are starting to filter out of North Korea about the possibility that Kim Jong-Il is losing his grip on power. If his dictatorship should thankfully collapse under its own weight, will any credit be given to the path set by President Bush and Colin Powell and followed by the six nations? (China, Japan, South Korea, Russia, United States, and of course North Korea.)

According to a theory, China is playing an active part in Jong-Il demise. They have picked a successor and stand ready to rush troops south to help stabilize the country. That may come as a shock to many but North Korea has primarily served as a Chinese puppet state and while China pursued a Western style economy, Jong-Il has been left to his own devices.

That being said, I doubt that China wanted another nuclear player in the region and has been quietly been working behind the scenes to fix their "problem child" with the blessing of the United States. Now if I was cynical, I would say that the Chinese welcome the opportunity to work out it's military in preparation for future action against Taiwan. But that's just crazy talk, never mind the fact that the President and others have quietly abandoned a two China policy.

The fact of the matter is that North Korean could have ceased to be a problem if handled correctly in 1994 by then President Clinton. The promise for the North Koreans to give up their nuclear ambitions in exchange for food and other energy resources was nothing more then a payoff. If we had refused to deal with North Korea in 1994 as we have now and organized the 6 nation talks, North Korea will no longer be a nuclear thorn in the side of the world. Many reports sight the fact that in 94, the government was 2 years from collapse and all we did with our food deal was prop up a dictatorship and contribute to the deaths of countless North Korean civilians due to starvation.

The humane solution could be to work with our partners in the 6 nation talks to speed Jong-Il removal from power by any means necessary while planning for the needs of the North Korean citizens and securing their nuclear arsenal. If estimations are even remotely correct and the failure of the North Korean government is eminent, then the West needs to move quickly to help the masses of people that surely flee north to China and south to South Korea. Hell, I would even call for the UN to get involved if I thought they would actually do some good.

I would be very surprised if the President’s hard stance with North Korea gets any credit in the MSM if it is shown to have helped speed the removal of Kim Jong-Il, after all if you listen to them, he should have invaded North Korea and Iran for their nuclear programs before even thinking about liberating 25 million people in Iraq. And before the leftist go crazy with that last comment, it’s an exaduration, relax and have a little humor. Enjoy the links below, later…………….

http://www.inform.kz/showarticle.php?lang=eng&id=105308

http://www.guardian.co.uk/korea/article/0,2763,1378854,00.html

http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?bicode=060000&biid

Beer For My Horses

Something about these lyrics from Toby Keith hints of some good old common sense. Sadly there is just too little of it going around these days. Enjoy..............

Justice is the one thing you should always find
You got to saddle up your boys
You got to draw a hard line
When the gun smoke settles we’ll sing a victory tune
We’ll all meet back at the local saloon
We’ll raise up our glasses against evil forces
Singing whiskey for my men, beer for my horses

We got too many gangsters doing dirty deeds
We’ve got too much corruption, too much crime in the streets
It’s time the long arm of the law put a few more in the ground
Send ’em all to their maker and he’ll settle ’em down
You can bet he’ll set ’em down ’cause

Merry Christmas to All

Picture courtsey of Digital Blasphemy.

May the holiday find you with family and friends.

WTF Friday Rant Volume 1 Issue 4

First things first, Merry Christmas to All and May God Bless you and your family as he continues to Bless the United States of America. May He watch over and protect our servicemen and women as they defend the ideals this country was founded upon, thank you for your continuing service and sacrifice.

Now for a kinder, gentler edition of the WTF Friday Rant.

Bravo Dave, Bravo
http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/

Thank God the Penguins are safe.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4123927.stm

Christmas Hope in the Holy Land
http://reuters.excite.com//article/20041224
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/

Festivus for the rest of us, classic
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story

Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia
http://www.wsoctv.com/money/4020146/detail.html

Last Minute Gift Idea, Give a Goat
http://reuters.excite.com/article/20041224/

Even Birds need some Love
http://reuters.excite.com/article/20041223/

President Bush's Holiday Wishes
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/12/24/90059.shtml
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/12/24/125242.shtml
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/12/24/politics/main662989.shtml

And last but not least, Santa Claus.
http://www.noradsanta.org/english/radar/index.html

Recognize The True Enemy

I ran across this post today at Framptonia, it's a team blog run by my buddy Nathan. Today's post was a well-written defense of the ACLU by Sarafenix. Now as most know, I am no friend of the ACLU and while I don't wish to debate the merits of that organization yet again, my opinion is well documented. (Here, Here, and Here.) Below is the snippet that I take offense with, but don’t believe me, go read the full post here.

“The ACLU would stand for these same "Christians" if their belief system was going to be limited if the religious majority in this country were Islamic. The ACLU would and will stand for all who find themselves oppressed from having what I see to be the greatest freedom...and that is the freedom to express one's self without fear of reprisal...the thing that this blog forum allows for us now, the freedom of speech.”

Again a well-written post by Sarafenix, and while I have a different opinion about the usefulness of the ACLU, I can point out one thing you are dead wrong about.

If this was a country with an Islamic majority, there is no way in hell they would allow an organization such as the ACLU to exist. It would be disbanded, its members watched by agents of the Religious establishment and most likely killed or tortured, kind of like what happens to Christians in Muslim countries all over the world.

While most followers of the Islamic faith are peace loving individuals, most of their governments and Oman’s think differently. Please don't think for a minute that a group such as the ACLU could protect or fight for you under such conditions. Here's are some links to examples of Muslim vs. Christian violence as well as Muslim vs. other religions.

http://www.asininity.com/comments/P1058_0_1_0/

http://atheism.about.com/library/FAQs/islam/blis_extrem_clash.htm

http://www.religioustolerance.org/news_00jan.htm

http://www.barnabasfund.org/News/Archive/Iraq/Iraq-20041103.htm

Allow me to close with a prayer for my Muslim friends and offer my wishes for peace in the coming New Year.

Allahumma ya mowlana antas-salaam, wa minkas-salaam, wa ilaika yarjaus-salaam, haiyyina rabbana bis-salaam, wa adkhilna daras-salaam, tabarakta rabbana wa-ta'laita, ya zal jalali wal ikram (English Translation below)

O God! O our Master! You are eternal life and everlasting peace by Your essence and attributes. The everlasting peace is from You and it returns to You. O our Sustainer! Grant us the life of true peace and usher us into the abode of peace. O Glorious and Bounteous One! You are blessed and sublime.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. Later…………..

Proof That Wisdom Knows No Age Limit

Often when I come across a blog that I want to read on a regular basis, I add it to my sidebar, and live bookmarks in Firefox then call it a day. I usually leave a comment on the blog but I don't always draw attention to the new addition on my reading list. Well faithful readers, that day has passed.

I was surfing through Blog Explosion yesterday, minding my own business, reading at least the last 4 posts on every site, my personal policy. I came across this blog by Nathan, called Neoconservative America. Admittedly there are quite a few good writers in the Blogsphere, and IMHO, Nathan is one of them. The title of today's post was inspired by the fact that Nathan is only 16 according to his profile and yet has a fantastic grasp of history. Hell, when I was his age, my only thoughts were how to do as little as possible in school and hang out with my friends.

His post from the 12th of December is a blunt and honest indictment of the failure of Germany to learn from its own history which makes me sad since I am half German from my Father's side. You can read the entire post here, but let me quote from the first paragraph below.

They stand there and protest a world in which American dominance is widespread; as if we are there to directly see the demise of them. They insult our leader and our values, call us arrogant, petty, dangerous, war-happy, and inconsiderate of what the "superior" Europeans want (and somehow know is better for us).

If I did not know better I would think he was referring to the American left, amazing how much they sound like Anti-American Europeans. And they wonder why we question their motivation in regards to this country. Boy that comment will get me some anonymous hate postings, oh well the truth hurts sometimes.

Stop by and give Nathan a read at Neoconservative America and see if you’re as impressed as I was by this young man. Later………………………

A Sad State of Affairs

Well Monday was good material for a future rant but other then that it sucked hard. That as they say is another story for another time. My target today is all of the sheeple that have either by conscious decision or through the subtle “1984” brainwashing of groups such as the ACLU have decided to join in the bastardization of Christmas by the politically correct hordes.

Let me recount what set me off today. I stopped at the store for soda this morning and after paying, wished the clerk a Merry Christmas. This young female, maybe 18 if lucky, promptly told me to not push my religious view upon her and to have a Happy Holiday Season. In my shock, I unfortunately blurted out the first thing that came to my mind. F*ck off you politically correct bitch. Now I immediately regretted saying this but left and went to my car. I guess I should have complained to the manager of the store and gotten the girl fired but I considered two things. One, I was running late for work and two; I would not want to be responsible for someone losing their job at Christmas time. Call me a sucker I guess.

I would think that we could learn something from this; tolerance for the sake of tolerance is bad. If anything, the tolerance preached by the left has made us less tolerant of others views and beliefs. Take for example the left’s recent backlash against Christian values and in particular the celebration of Christmas. The girl today in the store is just the latest symptom. A prime example of this “tolerance” gone wrong is the story of Bay Harbor Islands and the city’s refusal to display a Nativity scene along side a Jewish Menorah on public property. Thankfully the courts ruled correctly and the Nativity scene was placed on display last night along side the Jewish Menorah. The complaint filed was not for the removal of the Menorah but for the inclusion of the Nativity display. An even better example is this thread from the “tolerant” folks over at Democratic Underground.

Does anyone remember when growing up being taught the “Golden Rule”, or “Live and Let Live” or even your parents telling you “not to say anything if you don’t have anything nice to say”? How about a little common sense? To be fair I know many folks who are liberal and/or members of the Democrat party and none of them are rallying to The Suppress the Christ in Christmas campaign. In fact many of them are Christians and celebrate Christmas to its fullest, of course most are family members since I don’t usually associate with the left in a social manner.

The “cause” has even spread to a site called “Buy Blue”. This site was created in the hope that all of the Blue State residents would start to speak with their wallets as well as their votes. All I can say is thank you to the sites creators wait and hear me out. They have a listing of companies by donation to political party, red and blue companies if you follow. Thanks to them we now know where to spend our money and can avoid funding any further attacks by not spending money with any of the blue companies.

You know this whole situation is very sad and I hope that we all remember that this is the time of year for personal reflection and family. Hat tip to MaxedOutMomma for the Bay Harbor story and the DU thread. Later……….

No Post Monday

Sorry, no thoughtful post today. We are short-handed at work and the call volume is kicking our ass. I will be back tomorrow with hopefully a better effort, later...................

Lazy Sunday

I am not feeling too creative or political, mainly since I am taking care of two small children and watching as much football as humanly possible. So how about a Free iPod update?

I am currently sitting at 9 referrals with 3 offers completed. Thanks to all that have signed up. So how about helping a brother out and click here. Just complete one of the offers and then email me your referral link so I can add it to the banner rotation and help you get your Free iPod. Some of the offers do require a credit card to sign up but all allow you to cancel after the trial period and not be charged. Do avoid the Video Professor offer; they have it very tiny in the small print that if you don't cancel the offer, you can get charged 69.99 for the full program.

In addition, the person that is the final completion for me will get a 1 Month banner on my site advertising their site as well as a post at the top of my blog detailing their site and directing my visitors to it. I know, I such a loser for this. I just don't really want to spend the 300 bucks. This is me with a big L on my head saying later........................

It's Official I am Not a Geek

This is too funny. My friends and family would never believe the score though. I am off to enjoy Saturday football after a long night of poker. Enjoy the quiz. Later...............

You are 30% geek

You are a geek liaison, which means you go both ways. You can hang out with normal people or you can hang out with geeks which means you often have geeks as friends and/or have a job where you have to mediate between geeks and normal people. This is an important role and one of which you should be proud. In fact, you can make a good deal of money as a translator. Normal: Tell our geek we need him to work this weekend. You [to Geek]: We need more than that, Scotty. You'll have to stay until you can squeeze more outta them engines! Geek [to You]: I'm givin' her all she's got, Captain, but we need more dilithium crystals! You [to Normal]: He wants to know if he gets overtime.

Take the Polygeek Quiz at Thudfactor.com

WTF Friday Rant Volume 1 Issue 3

On to the madness that is the WTF Friday Rant. Enjoy the insanity.........

Need Money for the Holidays? I got a $100,000 for you if can prove 9/11 was an "inside job".
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=41957

Man arrested for 34th DWI claims world record, Guinness World Records says not so fast....
http://www.kotatv.com/localnews/story.asp?ID=20243

Docotor sets patient on fire, claims it didn’t happen
http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20041215-115559-6190r.htm

Sharks take the next step in evolution
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/

Hitler, not only was he the most evil man in the world but he didn’t pay his taxes
http://reuters.excite.com/article/20041217/2004-12-17

Arab Media praises US, asked for comment SpongeBob Squarepants declares it Opposite Day
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/12/16/184236.shtml

Wal-Mart and Churches save Salvation Army from the Evil that is Target
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/12/16/162134.shtml
http://madtechspeaks.blogspot.com/2004/10/

Daschle follows in Kerry's footsteps, makes outrageous claim and then refuses to provide proof
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/12/16/112418.shtml

Prosecutor says Bible is "fighting words", hey chief, even hear of the First Amendment?
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=41969

Senior Citizen robbed after invited to join in nude photo shoot
http://reuters.excite.com/article/20041213/

The dead have spoke and they want to get high
http://reuters.excite.com/article/20041216/

The PC Police Ride Again

When O Lord will your people rise up and speak out against their persecution? The ACLU and other groups have made school districts unwilling partners in their march to remove Christmas from schools and other public venues. The link below describes the over-reacting of a school district in Texas. For fear of offending people with the red and green colors of Christmas, the school board has banned green and red clothing at their winter dance and instructed students to only wear white.

Let me follow the logic for a second. Green and red symbolize Christmas and Christmas could offend people so we must ban green and red from school functions. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. I guess the threat of a lawsuit from some liberal, atheist jerk-ass is enough to destroy the sprit of Christmas and lead to banning of colors. Enjoy the article. Later...............


http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=41955

UPDATE: Follow this link for the latest news on the case, and the Feds have opened a probe into the issue, details here.
Later....................

No Pledge, Your Fired!

In my humble opinion, politicians are elected and serve at the will of their constituents. If this trustee's constituents feel that he can't do his job unless he recites the Pledge of Allegiance, then so be it. He serves at their digression and if he is removed from office, it is not because of intolerance, but because he did not meet their expectations.

The expectations of our politicians have been far too low for to long. I commend these voters for holding this man to their higher standard. Enjoy the link below. Later................

http://www.local6.com/news/3999438/detail.html

Canada, Friend or Leech?

First off, this post is not in any way critical of the Canadian people but rather their government and the free ride it gets from being our next-door neighbor. To my Canadian readers and friends, nothing personal, this is business.

The reality of the matter is that Canada has for years allowed their military to decline simply because of the fact they could rely on the United States to rush to their defense if Canada was ever attacked. Now, comes word that they are going back on a handshake agreement regarding the Missile Defense Program.

Well, let me express my humble opinion and give the President some advice. Ask Canada to start pulling their weight as far as their defense. Ask Canada to tighten their borders and help prevent terrorists from entering the US from the north. Hell, their borders are in worst shape then ours. I have personal experience with the Canadian Border Patrol on the US/Canada border in Michigan, but that's a story for another time.

Again, no offense to my Canadian friends, much like some of you, I just have a problem with your government. Enjoy the link. Later............

http://www.canada.com/fortstjohn/

Goebbels is Alive and Well

And he works for the Al Manar network owned by Hezbollah. I am all for freedom of the press when they at least attempt to do their job and report the facts but this network is nothing short of a recruiting arm of a known terrorist organization.

I am hearten by US efforts to label the television network a terrorist organization, they are after all owned by Hezbollah and spew terrorist propaganda 24 hours a day. They must be running short of gullible people to become human bombs. Enjoy the links below. Later..........

http://www.techcentralstation.com/121504B.html

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/12/15/hezbollah.tv/

Hey Mohammad, NO GPS FOR YOU!

I was unsure on I felt about this until I really sat and thought about it. I must give the President credit for thinking "outside the box" in his efforts to protect this country. The reality is that GPS is a valuable tool to both our first responders and our enemies. I would hope that the Department of Defense really works on this capability to ensure that the people that need GPS to function still have it in the event of an emergency. The links are below, enjoy. Later..................

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/12/15/211854.shtml

There is Justice in America

Anyone remember the college professor who staged a "fake hate crime" last year? Well there is justice in American, this leftist psych professor Kerri Dunn was sentenced to a year in prison for her crime of filing a false police report and 2 counts of insurance fraud. Maybe she will spend her time analyzing why she is such a nut and what lead her to commit her acts. I smell a book deal and parental blame coming. I have links to the story below, enjoy. Later...................


http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/12/15/154718.shtml

http://www.kpho.com/Global/story.asp?S=2698124

Back With a Vengence

I always knew that when I was living in Chicago there was something just not right with some of the liberals there. Their current Governor, who was elected the last year I lived there, has now shown his true face.

Nope, he's not a new breed of Democrat who can draw votes from both sides like Obama. He is a straight up lost his mind, died in the wool, wacko leftist who does not believe that 1) Parents know what's best for their children, 2) That most children can't tell the difference between a video game and reality.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich thinks that children who play video games up to the age of 18 have failed parents and just can't tell the difference between violence in a video game vs. reality. In fact he believes so strongly in this that he is pushing for a law in Illinois to make the sale of "violent" or "sexual-themed" game to anyone under 18 illegal.

His legislation if it passed would define a "violent" video game as any where the characters physically hurt one another. Dude, wake up to reality, that would be 80% of the games out their including Pac-Man, Finding Nemo (Son loves that one), and any of the Mario Brothers game. Granted he is targeting games such as in his words, "GTA, Halo 2, and Moral Kombat" but his broad definition could really apply to most games on the market today.

I believe his efforts will fail and that this may hurt his reelection chances among folks who want the government to stay out of their personal business and not blatantly state that they doing a poor job raising their kids so the government will help out with some more unneeded laws.

This is just another clear example of how Democrats don't seek to empower anyone; rather they pass laws to "protect us from ourselves". I got news for you Rod, my 4 year old knows the difference between a video game and reality, most kids do and most parents are doing a fine job. Take some advice and stick to other topics your more familiar with like raising taxes.

A link to the story is below, enjoy. I would include in closing that this story while championed by a Democrat this time has in the past been a favorite of left-leaning Republicans who share the view that we all too stupid to make the right choices in life so the government should do it for us. They share equally in my distain for government officials who intrude in the citizenry's lives. Later.......................

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/

Life Keeps Getting In The Way Of Blogging!

I am going to beg out of another thought-provoking post and simply present The Wednesday Mad Tech Site of The Day.

Hold the applause; this is a one time deal. See, today is my wedding anniversary and I have plans for Mrs. Mad Tech and they won't allow me to write tonight.

Without further ado, The Wednesday Mad Tech Site of the Day is.........

2Slick's Forum

2Slick is a chopper pilot who tells the true stories of our efforts in Iraq from the point of view of himself and his fellow soldiers. He is one of a growing number of military personnel turning to the internet to get the truth out on Iraq, Afghanistan, and the war on terrorism.

Speaking of Mrs. Mad Tech; I have been blessed to be married to the most caring, giving, and understanding woman I have ever had the privilege to know. Thank you for being there for me and kicking me in the ass when needed. Thank you for being a great mother to our children, my best friend and lover, and for being yourself. I love you with all of my heart and soul and thank God everyday for bringing you into my life.
Later................

Pentagon Announces 2005 Deployment Schedule

The Pentagon announced its troop deployment schedule for 2005 today, here is the link.

I make note of this because I want to wish good luck and Godspeed to every soldier being deployed. May God continue to watch over you and bless you and your families. Your service is not in vain and at least this American thanks you.

On a more personal note, I have mentioned in the past that my brother is a member of the 101st Airborne. They are among the units listed on the deployment schedule. I find it hard to convey my feelings to my younger brothers sometimes and him in particular. Must be from all the knock-down, drag-out fights we had as kids and even young adults, but I want him to know that I am proud of his service in the military for the past 13 years and continue to be. Stay safe and come home to your wife and children.
Later......................

Here are some links to sites that directly help the men and women in our military.

The USO
The Red Cross
Fisher House
Defend America
Support Your Troops
Any Soldier

Merry Christmas ACLU

Found this over at TS Right Dominion and had to share. Let me add a little F*ck you to the ACLU from the bottom of my heart. Later................

Day Off

No post today, I have a scheduled day off from work and plan on spending it with the family. Of course after I take yet another Microsoft exam, they never seem to end.

Back to tomorrow with all kinds of Mad Tech goodness. Give the folks on the right a read, they have some good things to say. Later......................

Am I Crazy? Do I Amuse You?

Feeling a little nuts today, my lovely children are on a rampage and I am about to cry Uncle. I will return to my regularly scheduled postings tomorrow. Later........

P.S. This is not really a picture of me. I mean damn!!! Get a freaking nose job already. Later........

Something Warm And Fuzzy For The Holiday Season

Came across this article a few days ago so if you have already seen it I apologize. Basically the story details a fatwa allowing use of nuclear, biological and chemical that was issued about a year ago by a Saudi cleric.

According to Islamic law those weapons were prohibited from use and in fact OBL faced criticism from other radical Muslims for not giving the United States "warning" before the 9/11 attacks. Now with this ruling, it appears that al Qaeda has no remaining religious or moral barriers to prevent from carrying out these attacks if they actually posses them.

In fact let me go out on a limb and say that "every" terrorist group in the world that is at least loosely tied to Islam will take this as a green light and re-double their efforts to obtain these weapons. Given the fact that this news was largely hidden from the public for over a year, I would guess that they have already followed up on the fatwa.

While al Qaeda is certainly not finished and continues to plot against this country and its interests, my greatest fear are groups such as Hamas or Hezbollah. Not that they had the resources to strike this country but that they would use those weapons against a U.S. ally such as Israel or even Egypt or Jordan. Those last two countries are not such a stretch when you look closely at who the majority targets in Iraq are, Muslims killing Muslims.

Given this countries strong ties to our allies in the middle east, any attack by the aforementioned groups would only draw us in deeper. The reality of the situation is that the United States will need to keep a large military force in the Middle East for an extended period of time. This is the reality of our obligations to the region, regardless of whom the President is or who controls Congress. It is very disappointing to see members of the media, Democrat party, and others not acknowledge the reality of our foreign policy. We are all Americans and if we do not recognize the true form of our enemy, I fear there will be some dark days ahead for this country.

I have linked the article below; regardless of your political leanings give it a read. It very clearly lays out the threat against our country. Later.............

http://www.jinsa.org/articles/articles.html/

WTF Friday Rant Volume 1 Issue 2

First a bit of blogsphere business to attend to, I would like to extend a large thanks and major hat tip to my buddy Zeke over at It Is What It Is. He wrote a few kind words about this site in a posting yesterday. Give him a read; you'll like what you read.

Now on to the madness that is the WTF Friday Rant. Enjoy the insanity.........

When is a dictatorship not a dictatorship? I guess if you make some phony laws to direct blame from said dictator.
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200412/08/

Flash!!!!! Space Station hit by food shortage, apparently eating disorders exist in space as well.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/10/science/space/

Great, I can see it now, "Man killed on flight over cell phone argument" And I would be lucky enough to sit next to the jack*ss.
http://cnnmoney.printthis.clickability.com/pt/

Shock and Awe, Liberal Press makes the news rather then reports it!!! Like any of us are the least bit surprised by this loser, even his editor agrees.
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/

Fo Shizzle, SC dropped the sticky icky on the shorties and had to jet before the po-po dropped a case on da man.
http://reuters.excite.com/article/20041209/

"Damn I have a headache honey." Wife relived after 4 years of excuses for no sex.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=41839

MoveOn calls McAuliffe a Bitch and he likes it.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/12/9/215826.shtml

The Island of Dr. Moreau found in Minnesota, Nevada (not Area 51, sorry), and California. Ok, California is not really that surprising.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6534243

"Commies love the ACLU" Damn! I knew they had something in common.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=41864

Hey ACLU!! Even the Atheists believe, shouldn’t you?
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?

And last but not least.

Pope tells the Devil to go to Hell
http://www.reuters.com/

Test of AudioBlogger

When Univeristies Go Bad

It's been awhile since I was on a college campus on a regular basis. I do however have friends and family that are still in school so I had some idea of how bad it had become for conservative and libertarian leaning students, basically anyone who does not agree with the administration’s or faculty’s leftist agenda.

Thanks to Evan Maloney and crew over at Academic Bias, we now some concrete example of how leftist colleges and universities are becoming. Evan took to the road and visited some of the more well known institutions of higher learning in this country, including the University of Tennessee and Cal Poly. His documentary focuses on the practice of university administrators and faculty to force their political views on the student body by enforcement of "speech codes".

The case studies include extreme political correctness, academic bias, student censorship, and last but not least administration cover-ups of student mistreat by other students or faculty. Frankly there is little that the libs and their extreme cousins, the socialists do that shocks me but this film was a great eye-opener.

After viewing the film, I did some research on the subject matter and found numerous examples of schools abusing their student body (Not that body, stay with me folks). Quite a few examples can be found over at FIRE, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. This group while founded by liberals does the kind of work that the ACLU should be doing and often finds themselves at odds with other liberals. These folks are ok in my book.

Also during the course of my research I came across a book called The Shadow University by Alan Charles Kors and Harvey A. Silverglate. Their book documents the hundreds of cases of free speech and civil rights abuse the authors have found across this country. They showcase how the free speech and civil rights movements of the 60's are being perverted by administrators and faculty to foster their agenda. I plan on reading this book and from the excerpts on their website. I suggest if you’re concerned about the indoctrination of our youth, you do so as well.

I have provided a link below to the film by the folks at Academic Bias; take a gander if you’re inclined. The second link to an article by a liberal professor at Adrian College speaking to the fact that the Saddam Hussein style of government is the only one that will work for Iraq. This article I took personally since Adrian College was the site of my first college courses, albeit when I was 13 years old. This has been around in the Blogsphere so I just suggest a visit to the article, your jaw will drop and you'll say WTF? Hat tip to MaxedOutMomma for a great take on the article and the professor. Enjoy the links and the film if you watch it. I would download it if you have broadband; the streaming is a little choppy. Later...............

Academic Bias: Brainwashing 101

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1207-31.htm

A Thought For Fixing Social Security

Contrary to what the Democrats think and say, including Senator Reid, Social Security is broke and can not continue in its present form. I think I am not alone in expecting absolutely nothing from Social Security when I retire.

I have some links below; the first is a transcript of the Meet The Press show from Dec. 5th with Senator Reid speaking on Social Security with Tim Russert. The rest profiles the success of the Chilean private retirement system and how exactly it works.

As I understand the Chilean plan, it certainly seems like we could take some ideas from it and apply it to our system. I am curious, how many of you, my faithful readers, actually count on anything from Social Security towards your retirement? Enjoy the links, later................

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6646457/

http://www.newsmax.com/

http://www.cato.org/pubs/ssps/ssp17.pdf

http://www.ncpa.org/oped/dupont/socs.html

The Rewriting of History

On this day, December 7th, I want to thank all WWII veterans for your service to this country; you truly did save the world.

The history of WWII and other eras is slowly and quietly being rewritten by academia. Pick up of your kids history books and see what is now said about Pearl Harbor and other major events of the 20th Century. I have gathered a few links below that address different aspects of this troubling trend.

I happen across a discussion on one of the cable news networks, I forget which because I fell out of my seat at what was being said about Pearl Harbor. The guest speaker put forth the theory that Pearl Harbor really was America's fault in large part to the economic policies of FDR. Pick your self off the floor and read that again if needed, we will wait for you. Ok, so the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor was our fault much in the same way certain groups want to blame 911 on us.

Here's the theory, which I think is pure BS. 1) The Japanese were forced to expand their military due to the military build up of Britain and the United States. 2) Japan only wanted free trade and the US and other countries placed unfair tariffs on Japanese goods. 3) Because of the previously mentioned military buildups and tariffs, the Japanese had no choice but to expand their economy through territorial expansion. 4) Since the US was seen as the major player in the Pacific, the Japanese starting planning for armed conflict with the US as early as 1920. 5) FDR’s economic polices led the Japanese to be in direct conflict with the US on many resources including rubber, oil, various foodstuffs and metals. 6) The Japanese had no choice but to attack us since there were secret plans for the US to hinder the Japanese expansion by any means necessary.

I am no historian, my main interest in history actually lies with the Civil War but that's for another time. I do know enough from history in school and my grandparents that this guy is smoking crack. Allow me to shoot down his revisionist history point by point. 1) It is true that the US and Britain were expanding their militaries but only to catch up the years of buildup that Germany and Japan had already undergone. 2) The US in the late 30's placed tariffs on just about every country that sold goods to the US. Our economic policy was one of isolationism. 3) The Japanese choose to expand their territory through military might and not economics, had they followed the other path, we might have only had to fight Germany. 4) The 3 major universities of Japan held a meeting in 1920 regarding the US and the title of the meeting was "Shall Japan Fight the US". Many of those attending went on to large roles in the either the Japanese government or military. 5) The fact of the matter on the economic competition between the US and Japan in the late 1930's is simply that we had a larger economy and could buy those aforementioned resources at a lower price and in larger quantities then a fledgling Japanese economy could. 6) FDR’s foreign policy was clearly stated many times leading up to the Second World War. No greater example of his desire to stay out of international affairs was his refusal to let the US join the League of Nations. He had a clear policy of isolationism and there were simply no plans to attack or prevent a Japanese expansion in the Pacific.

On this day of remembrance, I think it is very disrespectful that historians try to rewrite WWII as a device of US foreign policy. On a side note, the first link is to the latest example of what a scumbag Terry McAuliffe is and continues to be. Unfortunately this seems to be an example of the new democrat policy that nothing is off limits and they will fight on every issue. I wonder what Terry's relatives that served in WWII would say of his assine remarks.

Sorry for going long on this one, seems to be a habit of mine lately. I would encourage every parent to take a look at how your children are being taught American History and challenge the schools not to buy in to the politically motivated rewriting of history. If any teachers pass through, please let me know if this is happening to your school. Thanks to all who read and comment, enjoy the links below.
Later...................

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/

http://slate.msn.com/id/94663/

http://tmh.floonet.net/articles/pearl.html

http://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/vol46no3/

http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/

http://www.milnet.com/opinion/more-lib.htm

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/pf/p-j052101.html

End Users I Hate

I think there are two schools of thought on tech support. One is that tech support is a necessary evil and we who work it are overpaid cube monkeys. The other one is that we are members of a secret caste of computer geniuses. I like to think it’s the second, but that might be my ego talking.

One of the things that we handle is password resets for various applications up to but not including Windows. Windows passwords are handled by another group and only by them, in other words the domain administrators. Quite a few end-users change their passwords and then promptly forget them and get locked out of their laptops.

Usually we have then turn the laptop off and wait the lockout period which is 20 minutes. If they really can’t remember then we will have one of the domain administrators reset the password to a company default so they can change it at the next login.

Today I had a real special kind of user call; I like to call this one the wanabe-vip. These are users who in their minds are too important to listen to us or too busy and make their administrative assistants call for them. This user had been prompted to change his Windows password this morning per the domain security policy and was successfully helped by one of my colleagues.

About 5 hours later I take a call from this same user who has not forgotten his new password. Small problem, he’s on the west coast and the domain administrators have left for the day since they are on the east coast. That seemly lack of foresight by corporate is another story for another time. I explained that he would need to follow the steps to recover from a Windows soft-lock since I did not have access to his domain account and the ability to reset his password.

It goes without saying that he was a little pissed off and yet seemed to understand the situation. Not 10 minutes later, his assistant called in for him with the same problem. I politely explained what the user needed to do and why I could not reset his password until tomorrow morning. She actually thanked me and hung up.

At this point I am thinking what a moron and how could this guy be selling software. So I pick up another call and before I can get the corporate sponsored greeting out of my mouth, the caller hangs up on me. I could tell by the background noise that it was the aforementioned user since another trait of the wanabe-vip is to call in while on the worst possible speaker phone connection. In summary all I can say is that’s another Monday for you and that guy was such a tool.

Later…………..

Call Me Mr. Mom

My wife has once again joined the ranks of the employed after spending the last 3 1/2 years raising my son and having my daughter. In response to this turn of events, I have unleashed my Mr. Mom side. No more free weekends for me, alas my weekends of debauchery are now ended.

I had a plan. I swear I did; only my children conspired against me and set me on the plan for failure. Saturday was to be a day that I would tidy around the house as well as watch the kids. That went right out the window. My son who is in the final stages of potty training decided that he would not wear underwear today. I try to be understanding to his needs (my lib side was showing) but could not really debate him on it. See, his sister had other plans.

My daughter was a preemie and came 2 months early, but thanks to God and the stubbornness that she got from me, she is doing great and has no ill effects from coming at 31 weeks. She was slow to start with nursing and has mostly fed from a bottle for the last 3 months. Lately she had taken to nursing with a fierceness that makes her old man proud.

She has even at times refused the bottle in order to nurse. Can you see where this could be a problem for someone like myself who lacks the ability to generate breast milk? That was the case on Saturday afternoon. After explaining my lack of breast milk to my daughter, she finally saw the logic of my argument and took the bottle.

In all we survived Saturday and looked forward to football Sunday. See, I have watched the kids before on Sunday while Mrs. Mad Tech ran errands or just got out of the house for a few hours. Notice the time frame, a few hours. I was now tasked with caring for the kids for about 9 hours. Due to the wife's schedule, that including 2 meals plus snacks and a nap. Once again I had a plan.

I made breakfast for the son and I and settled in for a morning of football (yes morning, I am in freaking Arizona.). My wife had fed the girl before she left so I was good for a couple of hours, especially since she went back to sleep. I got the boy to wear his underwear with the promise of a bike ride to the park. That idea went to shit as soon as I realized it was raining. Yes it does rain in Arizona every once and awhile.

Then all hell broke loose, the girl wanted a bottle and the boy had to use the bathroom. Calgon take me away. I managed to get everyone squared away without too much trouble. The boy got his PB&J for lunch and the girl got her defrosted breast milk. I then decided since Philly was beating the crap out of Green Bay, sorry co-worker who will not be named you know who you are, we would take a nap. That thankfully went very well.

In summary, my wife does an incredible job raising my kids and has my undying gratitude and love. I have watched my son many times in the past and always thought it was no big deal. Man, throw a second kid in the mix with an age difference to boot, watch out. To the many SAHM's that pass through this blog, you’re awesome. To my wife I am sorry I have diminished your efforts in the past, never again I promise. As for the house, when I get a handle on the children, the household chores will be done. I am going to bed early, later...........

Another Hero's Story

I ran across this story in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer of all places and have to give them credit for running it, albeit on their web version as far as I know since I don't subscribe or live in Seattle.

The story is about one of those” poorly trained National Guardsman". This guy is a hero and put aside any concern for his safety to help defend his fellow soldiers. Kudos to Tech Sgt. Kevin Whalen for his efforts and thank you for your service to this country. The link to the story is below. Enjoy..................

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/

1st Annual WTF Friday Rant

I have decided that on Friday's I will post a collection of eye-popping, WTF generating links that I have stumbled across during the pervious week. Or in this case, today, since I just thought of this idea like five minutes ago. So to kick off the inaugural WTF Friday rant, I present the following stories for your review, with a side order of smart-ass comments from me.
Enjoy...................

I used to like Tommy Thompson, but why give terrorist's any ideas? Especially if they are too dumb to think of targets on their own.
Tommy Thompson said what?
Tommy Thompson Part II

I am hard pressed to comment on this story, mainly because I can't understand why any sane human being could defend the reign of Kofi
American group slams US Diplomat for Annan Support
Annan's world is falling

I am glad to see that we are trusting our mall security to such a group of professionals, snooch to the booch.
Rent-a-cops look for suicide bombers

Good; now we don't have to worry about bring Anti-Trust charges against the Al Qaeda for their terrorist monopoly.
Terrors groups join the WMD bandwagon

Ok, so Russia is/isn't our friend and their leader is/isn't crazy. Now I understand.
Putin shows his bi-polar side

Kinda puts a crimp on all you South Beach M'Fer's, Daddy needs a fix of Splenda
Fake Sugar hits 50 bucks a Kilo?

Was your city naughty or nice this year?
Homeland Security plays Santa Claus

Ok, who checked his resume? You’re fired!
Does NBC really know who Brian Williams is?

The Long Overdue Work Rant

I am happy and grateful that I have a job. My job consists of babysitting a bunch of over paid salespeople tasked with selling, you'll never guess, software. A trained monkey could most likely do this job, ok, maybe only half of this job. Overall, it's a good job and I am glad to have it.

I have in the almost 9 months I have worked for this company never called in sick or taken time off, with the exception of the birth of my daughter and to have minor out-patient surgery. I don't expect kudos for it nor do I want them. In my book, you go to work each day, on time, and do your best. Imagine my surprise when I requested a couple of days off, (My Anniversary, and My Birthday) and was told to find someone to cover my shift.

I work the "closing shift" from 11am-8pm. I am pretty ok with it and it works out for us right now. I don't fault my supervisor for this policy, hell not even his supervisor, the policy I am sure comes from far above. At least I hope it does. The core issue is not really that I have to jump through hoops to take time off that has been earned, but that companies like mine are forced to do a lot more with a lot less.

Now, this is nothing new, I have not just scooped Drudge or anything. There are a lot of factors for doing more with less. In our case, we have 6 out of our 8 techs that are damn good and we can do the work that was previously done by about 30 if the old-timer's stories are true. As with any company if you can trim your costs, you make more profits so there is no surprise that we run a small crew on this account. Hell, if I was the Ops manager, I would do exactly the same thing.

I wish I could offer solutions to this issue but I don't have any. And I am certainly not going to scream about out-sourcing, because if you know me or have read this blog for awhile, I think the individual has to step up and take responsibility for his or hers employment. If I was a shitty employee, I would deserve and expect to be fired. It's my "job" to be the best I can, only then can I expect employment. Some would say, but that's not fair, everyone does not have the same skill set. My answer, too bad, someone has to take out the garbage and vacuum the floor.

I guess I am just old fashioned in my thinking that your best employees should be rewarded and the slackers be fired. Nowadays, everyone is so afraid of not being politically correct or being sued by a fired employee that the worst employees are not only given the privilege of continued employment but in some cases showered with bogus awards designed to make them feel better about their position in the company.

I used to care about things like that, but I found that my greatest reward is that I get to work another day and provide for my family. Sorry for the length, this rant has been building for a long time. As for those of you who I work with and read this, sorry, sometimes the truth hurts. By the way, you may want to Google "The Queen of the Sky" before you think about any work related action against me as the result of my online opinion. Remember the first amendment protects even me.
Later...........

10,000 Served And Counting

First of all, I promised myself I would not cry damnit. Wow, 10,000 hits since Oct. 21st, 2004. Thanks to each and everyone that has visited, even if only for 30 seconds. I would like to send special thanks to all who have chosen t0 add me to your blogroll over at Blog Explosion. Here's a list of their sites (in no order), pay them a visit. Thanks again to everyone, later...............

ficken chingers
anti-everything
Amy's Bad Groove
Blog Magazine
Read'em and Reap
Cadmusings
Cao's Blog
Cavalier's Guardian WatchBlog
Sheep in Wolf's Clothing
Rite Turn Only
C.R.A.M.I.
Credendo Vides
The Apologist
The Daily Grind
Darth Apathy
Musings of a Thoughtful Conservative
Tasty Thoughts From The Elitist Pig
Dykes and The City
Follow That Star
Get Stewed
The Radical Centrist
Garfieldt's Blog
Section 31
imatt.us
New Trommetter Times
jmo reflections
Jennsylvania
Para-Bellum
JesseJ's Modblog
Boring Mommy
MUGround Poetry Magazine
MadKane
maxedoutmomma
Michael_the_ArchAngel
MentalAcrobatics
misguided thoughts
the Logic Free zone
Pastoral Thoughts
Richardson Zoo
Framptonia
To New Frontiers
Leaf's Right
Simple Thoughts
Whimsical Chaos - Shannon's Blog
It's A Matter Of Opinion
a ZA boy in the UK
The Glass Wall
One Day at a Time
The Left Ain't Right
The Van Dollen Family
selected pete
Solipsist
Shelley's incoherent ramblings.....
Snidget
The Common Man's point of view
Come Escape With Me
The Wrye Forest Agenda
The Royal Flush
The New American Revolutionist
Politics in Moderateland
Treb's Blog
California Hammonds
V Stands for Vampire
Who Knew?
Joy Unexpected

P.S. If your not listed, either I screwed up or you just blogmarked me after I wrote this. I would bet on me screwing up.

Beware Bloggers, The ACLU Is Coming To Your Rescue

My goodness could it be that the "evil" ACLU is actually fulfilling its mission and protecting free speech. Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. The ACLU has filed a friend of the court brief that defends mine and every other blogger out there from being sued over objectionable quotes.

The article can be found here and it goes like this, if I say something that is libelous or outrageous and one of my buddies in the sidebar quotes me on their blog, they can not be sued. Well the California Court of Appeals has ruled that any internet publisher, i.e. blogger, can be sued for objectionable material even if it's in the form of a quote of another's speech.

The ACLU filed this brief in defense of all internet publishers. It basically states that you or I can quote the most hateful and evil speech and as long as it's not our original writings or opinions, we are protected under the first amendment. See, I told you that the ACLU does some good every once and awhile. I do still think that they are a misguided organization that does a small portion of the good they could be accomplishing.

Enough of that love fest, here's a link detailing yet another battle over Christmas in schools. Gotta love it when lawyers fight among one another. I can see it now, coming on Fox this Saturday night, "When Lawyers Attack......"
Enjoy............

ACLU Vs. Parents

This is a very touchy subject and before I express my opinion, let me clearly state my position on gay rights, because in case you’re riding the short bus, this post is really about the ACLU.

My personal opinion is that anyone who homosexual has the same rights or privileges as anyone who is straight. Sounds simple enough, well here's the catch. I do not believe that anyone should have special rights because of some group they belong to; I do believe that everyone should be judged by the quality of their character and nothing else. I know that is a little naiveté.

Here's my example against "special rights". I am like most Americans and am over weight, now do I because of my physical attributes deserve "special rights", I think most would say no way in hell. In fact most would say get your ass to the gym and lose some weight. Let's apply this to a non-physical attribute such as sexual orientation. I am a proud Republican, should I because of my political affiliation be granted "special rights" to help combat the liberal bias that I deal with on a daily basis, including my place of employment or at a liberal dominated university? Again most would say hell no, tough it out or don't tell people your political leanings.

My opinion on the rights of homosexuals is simply that there are enough laws on the books to make sure they enjoy the same rights that all Americans enjoy. I have several friends that are gay and bi-sexual so I have a tiny bit of insight on this subject. Read that last sentence carefully, “a tiny bit of insight”. I don’t claim to be an expert on what it means to be gay. In fact one of my friends had to tell me that she was, I just don’t really care what people do in the privacy of their homes or think in those terms when dealing with people.

In my ideal world most people would share that opinion, live and let live. That is a simple concept, yet hard to execute. Now on to the target of my rant, the ACLU, they now seem to think that they should determine school curriculum without the input or consent of parents.

As I have said in the past, the ACLU does some good but they are beginning to really stray from their core mission. I ran across the story of the Boyd County School District. About 10 months ago, they settled a lawsuit with the ACLU over the ability of a Gay student group to meet on school grounds. As part of the settlement, the school would require all staff and students to view a video on being tolerant of gays. Ok, I have no problem with the school being sued for denying the student group access to school facilities. That was and is wrong regardless of whom the student group is.

What I do have a problem with is that the ACLU thinks that it knows better then these students parents on how to teach tolerance. I think that most would agree that a forced viewing of a 60 minute video is not going to cut it. Tolerance for good or bad is taught by friends and family. The school district has had the following response to the required viewing of the video: “According to the district, 105 of 730 middle school students didn't take the training after opting out while 145 of 971 high school students opted out and 324 didn't show up for school on the day of the training.”

The ACLU is now threatening to take the school back to court to force the students to sit through the video. I know that many may not view this as a big deal, and maybe it’s not. I have two young children and I would like to think that my school district values the opinions of its parents and encourages input from them. Here’s a comment from the ACLU lawyer on this turn of events. "The schools have great latitude in what they want to teach, including what's in training programs, and the training is now part of the school curriculum," Esseks said. "Parents don't get to say I don't want you to teach evolution or this, that or whatever else. If parents don't like it they can home school, they can go to a private school, they can go to a religious school."

Actually, the training video is not part of the curriculum, because if it was then the ACLU would not have to waste more of the taxpayer’s money in yet another court appearance. What I take from that quote is that the ACLU feels that no parent should have anything to do with the education of their children. If I was in the situation I would lay blame at the feet of the school district first then the ACLU.

I blame the school district for their short-sightedness in not involving the parents in the original settlement and ACLU for thinking they can dictate school curriculum without participation of the most important piece of this equation, the parents.

I included the links below for more information on this topic. Later…….

http://www.mensnewsdaily.com/archive/m-n/

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/

http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/