My RamBlog Page deux
(That would be Rambling Web Log to the uninitiated)
My RamBlog Page deux (That would be Rambling Web Log to the uninitiated) |
No these aren't dated daily. It's last year. Deal with it.
Yep, yer right. I should say "Seasons Greetings", but I really don't give a fuck. If I stepped on your toes, move your friggin' feet.
Back in the news again... medical Marijuana. Can't use it because it hasn't be proven safe. (I won't mention anything about the drug compnies latest recalls. Honest!) Illegal. No way you can use it.
Uh... ok... but it works. Some say even better than any prescription drug they've ever used. It's for people who are essentially dying. We certainly wouldn't want anyone who is dead addicted to it, right?
Why is it illegal? Easy. Drug companies can't figure out how to sell it at their normal 9000% profit margin. A weeks supply of MJ? Mebbe 20 bucks. A weeks supply of (arguably less effective) prescription pain killers? Mebbe $200. So even if the drug companies are licensed to sell it, how can they boost the prices up 9000% over street prices?
So, in essence, you can't get a prescription for it cuz the drug companies can't make a million on it. In fact, it would cost them millions. (What would they do with all the million dollar drugs they have that don't work? Canada won't take everything!) No one is saying buy if off the street. They're asking to please make it available by prescription. It's a drug. That's what they make drugstores for. Duh!
Conny Rice was quoted once at saying "Punish France, Ignore Germany and forgive Russia". So... they give her a stronger voice in blowing up shit?
4 more folks. For all who voted for him, congratulations. For all who didn't... well, look at the bright side; it's certainly only 4 more to go.
BP just posted a bumper profit. Up 43% (to nearly 4 BILLION dollars) due to the high price of oil. Uh... wait a minute. What's wrong with this picture? Doesn't it seem as tho if they are making more due to a shortage then they are overcharging? Nah. Can't be. That would be illegal and the only way around that would maybe have some president or someone somewhere who's into oil. That's ridiculous.
Hey, some smokers in New York are fighting back. They're boycotting Lottery tickets in any business that they can't smoke in. Seems like it's costing the state a fortune in lost sales.
Need I say more?
I got it. Hurricane Ivan disrupted delivery lines so oil jumps to over $48 a barrel due to short supply.
Of course, no one noticed that millions are without power and can't even get gas or oil until it's restored. (Now that's short supply!) I don't know why it seems to me like it should be the other way around considering there's probably a few million barrels a day that can't be sold. Looks to me like the oil companies love it. If they can't get enough (or can bullshit you into thinking they can't), they raise prices. If they have too much, they blow something up. The only company on earth that makes more money the less product it has.
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we," Bush said. "They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
Yep, he actually said it. And no, he didn't correct it. I think the comment "dumber than an egg timer" is beginning to make sense.
Besides, now the airlines have a second source of income. Confiscated finger nail clippers, tiny pocket knives and cuticle scissors among other idiotic items for sale cheap. Of course, cigarette lighters are still allowed. I can only assume planes don't burn inside.
June 5, 2004. Ronald Reagan Passes. We'll miss you Ron. But evidently, MSNBC will wait. They have a show on now that says it is "live continuous coverage of the death of Ronny". Interesting. I wonder how long it will be til he's alive again. Remember when reporters had a brain and could speak the language?
Oh, Georgie boy...we can only wish... This silly fuck got us into this Iraq mess and doesn't have a clue how to get us out. Well, guess what dubbya... you can't. Blood is red and dead is dead. NO turning back numbnuts. Unlike Vietnam we can't just walk away. No one had any intentions of following us from there, but these fanatics are coming... with both guns blazing.
Seems history is repeating itself. The British thought we were uncouth because we hid behind trees. These scumbags throw propoganda out by the shitload and we just sit here and say... gee, why did they say that? When all else fails, Georgy... lie. NO YOU DICKHEAD! TO THEM!!! (I wonder how much his old man paid for his degree)
Vote for George and let him continue to run rampant in Iraq.
Vote for Kerry and let him not run rampant in Iraq.
Scary either way...
Ok, they made the Howard Stern dump permanent. Afraid of the fines, I suppose. I'm no fan whatsoever of Stern. I find him gross, crass, ignorant and really lame. But, that being said... it pisses me off. When you consider that the only country on earth that doesn't show full frontal nudity, cuts out words like shit, piss and fart (even tho piss and fart are making headway) is supposedly against the suppression of free speech. Bizarre.
No where else on this little blue ball floating in space is censorship so high. HBO shows "hot" shows? :::snicker:::: You haven't been to Europe, have you? Even the afternoon soap operas have full frontal nudity. (Yes, both sexes) Canada has some shows with it as well. In fact, the equivalent of our HBO shows downright hard core porn. Nothing like our Showtime and Cinemax... I mean REALLY hard core porn. I've even caught some on regular broadcast TV in Canada in prime time. No one complains, no one petitions the government. I think they see it as normal human behavior. What a concept eh? I guess that makes us abnormal.
Smith & Wesson, the 151-year-old handgun maker, is branching out into home decor, clothing and jewelry with a new catalog.
They already sells hunting gear such as binoculars and scopes, and has licensing deals for products ranging from bicycles to golf clubs. Hit by dozens of lawsuits brought by U.S. cities seeking to hold gun makers responsible for gun violence, have cut back on production.
That's kinda sad. How are folks in the middle east going to celebrate weddings and shit?
Uh, nobody has mentioned that the deadliest piece of equipment put in the hands of the general public is the automobile. Do the scumbag lawyers go after them next? Or maybe they haven't thot of it... yet.
A federal court in Oklahoma has blocked the national "do not call" list that would allow consumers to stop most unwanted telephone sales calls, one week before it was due to take effect.
The U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City said the Federal Trade Commission overstepped its authority when it set up the popular anti-telemarketing measure, according to a court decision filed late on Tuesday.
The FTC has signed up some 50 million phone numbers for the list, which was due to take effect on Oct. 1.
The Direct Marketing Association and several telemarketing firms sued to block the measure shortly after Congress approved it in January, saying it would violate free-speech laws and discriminate against an industry that provides millions of jobs.
WELL! Isn't that just freakin' dandy! Freedom of speech my ass. Buy a friggin commercial like everyone else does. Now the scumbags have access to 50 million phone numbers that they CAN call since this will probably end up nationwide. I want to sue the FTC now!
Look, I'm kind of sick of these idiotic drug commercials. Ask your doctor about this, ask your doctor about that. For chrissakes's people, if you have to ask your doctor... you need a new doctor!
Typo's? Who gives a shit?
Just read the sentence right through without really thinking about it.
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnat tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
a mzanig huh?
(Our patnted spel chekr now availab. Pleese emale for detais.)
Judge Allows 9/11 Suits Against Airlines
U.S. District Judge Alvin (Remember Alvin & the chipmunks? Well, evidently he's now a judge) Hellerstein said negligent security screening could have contributed to the deaths of 3,000 people in the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the crash of a hijacked plane in Pennsylvania.
Marc Moller, a lawyer who represents several hundred victims and relatives of victims, said the ruling created an opportunity that some families were concerned might not exist. (I think he means he didn't know existed) "They are important findings but they are preliminary," he said. "He has not said that the airplanes are liable. He said that that if the plaintiffs can prove their case, the airlines could be liable. The litigation risks lie ahead and they are great." (umm.... huh?)
All in all... this bullshit shows us that the terrorists don't have to do another thing. The lawyers have already taken over where they left off. They can screw us much faster than anyone. (They are, after all, professionals!) Hell, we're dependent on foreign oil, might as well be dependent on foreign air service as well.
Ok, no problem. Now illegal aliens in California can legally get a drivers license. (Is it just me?)
SCREWED AGAIN...
The Bush administration said it was easing rules that require hospitals to provide emergency care to anyone who seeks it. The revisions, sought by the hospital industry, reduce a hospital's liability for treating emergency patients and would make it easier for a facility to turn away patients.
More than 40 million Americans lack health insurance, and many of these uninsured use emergency facilities. Emergency room staff say they often cannot handle the influx and cannot provide proper care. The changes, which take effect in November and require no congressional approval, affect the 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA).
They blow up a Mosque and the Iraqi's bitch about not getting enough protection around the holy sites. But... no media organization mentions that the Iraqi's didn't want soldiers around their holy sites in the first place. Neat. Maybe we should just shoot the reporters. Problems over. (Note that I said reporters. Journalists are a thing of the past.)
Ok, the SoooooBig virus slowed down earth. Everyone says it's been a mess, big companies shut down etc., etc. They (news media, who we all know are up on everything) all say you open this attachment and it infects your computer and sends itself to others in your address book. I have to wonder though... no one tells you that it infects your computer ONLY IF YOU USE OUTLOOK FOR EMAIL!!! Assholes. 9000 free email progs out there that won't be affected and yet these idiots still run outlook. Will somebody please tell me why?
Um... huh? Another reason California should cecede...California state election officials randomly drew letters to determine the order of the Oct. 7 recall ballot.
Jeff Rainforth, chairman of the Reform Party of California, thought he'd won top billing after R was the first letter pulled out of the Keno-style tumbler. "We were pretty ecstatic," said Rainforth, whose name ranks first - alphabetically, at least - among 15 would-be governors whose surnames begin with the lucky letter. But under the lottery-style system, the reordered 26-letter alphabet - beginning R, W, Q, O, J, M, V, A and eventually ending with L - is applied throughout candidates' names. That means that David Laughing Horse Robinson, chairman of the Kawaiisu Indian tribe, goes first, not Rainforth, because O comes before A in the state's newfangled alphabet.
To avoid giving any one candidate a lasting edge, their names will be rotated one position for each Assembly district, of which there are 80. Robinson's name will be first on the ballot only in California 1st district, which stretches from the northernmost border to Sonoma County. The precise order and its potential ramifications won't be known until late Wednesday, however, when Shelley certifies how many candidates actually qualified for the ballot.
The state has used this system since 1975 to help erase the estimated 5 percent advantage a candidate gets from being at the top of the ballot. Of course, with 5000 candidates, the "Californiabetical" system will most likely up the time from a few seconds to a week for anyone to find who they want to vote for... if they ever do.
Ok, been running Win2k for eons now and NT before that. (Yeah, 95/98 windows sux). Anyway, got me a copy of the latest n' greatest XP pro! YAY! Load that sucker up! Cool GUI. Love the graphics and it's really a lot easier to maneuver around.Hmm... seems to run a lot slower than Win2k... (Capitol *L* in LOT)
Well, it's an older machine. Only a P2 350, 512k ram and I did only upgrade it.
Ok, let's give the laptop a shot. Clean format and install. P3 1 gig 256 ram. Hmm... VERY noticably sloooowwer... Ok, I give up. Let's hit it with the biggie. P4 2.4 gig machine, 1 gig ram. Hmmm.... slooooww...
Ok, well, letsee... XPig Pro runs much slower and... Hmmm... No printer drivers for the Laser printer, none for the inkjet. Scanner? Nope. Uh... video card? Nada. Well, XP's only been out for two years right? Scanner, laser, and inkjet are a year old. Ok, the video card is two. Sure, everything works, but really crippled. None of the advanced controls they used to have. (And I'm not talking off brands here... Epson, NEC, Canon, Matrox, etc.)
But, if I want to work at a decent speed (Yes, it's THAT clunky) with hardware that actually works, I had to "downgrade?" to Win2k. Machines all run like a bear again. Speed to spare.
But, the whole thing here is, if I wanna run XP, I have to register it. No matter what, even if I can't use it (AND I CAN'T), I can't return it for a refund. Got me a $350 coaster. You might say that no one forced me to buy it... but according to the ads... it's a MUST HAVE upgrade. Uh huh. Whatever happened to truth in advertising laws?
But, it coulda been worse. I coulda bought 5 copies for all the machines. (And Bill wonders why hackers attack him. Go figger.)
What's wrong with this picture...Motorcycle helmet laws... If you flip a bike without a helmet it's hard to believe you won't be killed or at least crippled. So, why is it optional in many states? That's a freedom of choice. What many of our soldiers died for. Freedom.
But!!!...Seat belts are mandatory virtually everywhere... yet it's been shown that in some cases they can be responsible for killing you. So, if you are sure to be killed (helmets) you have the option, if you "might" be killed (seatbelts) you don't? I guess the insurance companies figger it's cheaper to bury you than fix you.
Let's not forget that "Swedish sleep system" advertised on TV developed by... NASA? (Don't you just love our truth in advertising laws?) Makes you wonder just how many foreign products NASA invented. Let's see... Automobile? Nope, that was Germany (couresty of Mr. Benz). Contact lenses? Uh uh, Czech Republic. Stealth technology? Nope, Germany again (The whacko with the fuzzy lip started it circa dubbya dubbya 2 - along with Russia). Hi speed highways? Nope. The Autobahn in Germany was the first. And even though there is no speed limit, still the safest in the world. Go figger. Mini-spy camera? Latvia, circa 1936. Batteries? Italy. Internet? Wrong again, everyone knows that was Al Gore.
Hmmm...Bush says Iraq has WMD's, nuclear, etc.. Invades without positive proof. (Illegal search & seizure. Constitution? We don't need no stinkin' constitution!)
Why not just tell it like it is. (Ok, was) They fired at our planes practically every day. So... just tell em you fire once more and we annhillate you. Works for me and no lies required. They attacked us last, remember?
Let's see... New York city's open-container law bans alcohol in parks and beaches. But it seems you can have a bottle of wine at a concert in the park, yet get arrested for having a beer on the beach. I suppose the "fine print" of the law reads you can get arrested only if you don't have class.
(Who needs Baghdad Bob?) Second hand smoke kills according to EPA reports. Or so say the anti-tobacco folks. Well, not exactly. If you read past where they stop reading it says that it "may" be the cause of up to 2 (that's two) deaths in a hundred thousand lung cancer victims. But hell, you can't blame em. How much of a government report can you read before you fall asleep? And no, I'm not advocating smoking, but according to the EPA, more people die from brain farts then second hand smoke. Of course the EPA will probably get a hold of the EPA report of the anti smokers and rewrite their report. Since everyone already believes it, it must be right and theirs has to be flawed, right? After all, the anti tobacco folks have a lot more money to spend on stats, right? How can they be wrong? And think of the money they'll save the taxpayers. All they have to do is eliminate a few thousand pages from their own report and voila... done! And it only cost the taxpayer 10 million dollars. Think of it! 20 million dollars worth of government work that we already paid 90 million dollars for, for only 10 million! Only in America...
Prescription drugs are cheaper in Canada then the US. Of course the same drugs come from the US. So, what does congress do? Gives pharmacies the right to import our drugs back from Canada to make it cheaper for us. Hmmm... Wouldn't it be cheaper to just make them cheaper here? No import duties, etc., etc.? Well, I guess Canada needs a piece of the action too. Besides, the duties we pay are just icing on the cake for the government. Kinda like a tax that no one knows about. (Yo, Bob... Ya there? You can pick up some amazing pointers here, free of charge!)
Congress keeps chipping away at Social Security. Since they don't pay into it they can't get anything from it anyway. And since anyone who makes it to congress is guaranteed a pension of $15,000 per month when they retire, why would they care? I wonder what would happen to Social Security if we took away that pension and just gave them normal retirement benefits. We'd probably all be eligible for 10k a month in a very short time. And we could probably all retire at 30.
Tax cuts. YAY! They cut our taxes by nearly 2 bucks a year! Of course, since they have billions less to give to the states... the states raised our taxes by 10 bucks a year. But we don't care! We got a tax cut!!! Whoohoo! We need more of those cuts!!! Keep em coming til I can't afford any more!
They want to raise the minimum wage again! YES!!!!! Now the poor guy (I could say person here, but not to worry. I won't.) flippin' burgers can finally almost afford to raise a family. It's been a long time coming. Let's celebrate and go out for fast food. I can't wait to get me one of those (can't afford two) $15 burgers! I still don't know how they do it considering you get a whole ounce of meat (Before cooking) mixed in with the soy beans! Much cheaper than eating at home, when you consider a pack of (6) buns (top half optional) is $42 and hamburg is $80 an ounce.
REMEMBER TO FORWARD YOUR SPAMS:
The US Federal Trade Comission monitors the spam situation on behalf of the US government and has asked that you please forward every spam you get to: uce@ftc.gov
Maybe some day we'll get some government employees who have a clue and realize that it's easy to stop it if they use their heads and quit trying to make it illegal. Just make the way they do it illegal. If they use a false return address, it's a stiff fine. If it's their real return address, they'll fill up their boxes every 30 seconds with more junk then they send out. And everyone will know who's trying to sell the porn and the viagra and the etc., if all commercial email must have an email address (that matches the one in the header), a street address and phone number in it by law.
And no, numbnuts, it doesn't matter where the header points. If someone is trying to sell you something the contact you're looking for to sue is in the body of the email. They are the ones who are responsible. Sue them and the spam houses have no one to sell their services to. Duh. Look, an underage kid gets drunk. Whoever sold/gave it to them goes to jail, right? Or should we fine the distiller/brewer and let the seller go free? Fine the seller and the manufacturer (in this case, the spam delivery house) eventually goes out of business without any customers.
How exciting. The orifice of Homeland security awarded Bill a $90 Million contract to supply software to them. (Now this is for 140,000 government computers. Lessee... Full retail for 140,000 copies of XP (around $350?) runs around 50 million. I kind of find it hard to believe that "all" 140,000 puters will have the power to even run it, so obviously they won't be getting 140,000 copies.) Let's see... Government buys at discount... for instance a toilet seat is $800... Hammer, $400... That means they'll get 2 copies of XP for home, right? Wait til they try and register it. "Mr. Ridge, Mr. Ridge!!! Someone launched a missile at us!" "Tell it to wait George, I just added a hard drive." (20gig @ $5,420.37)
Found out why China is no longer worried about SARS. They outlawed Outlook, so the country is virtually virus free now.
NASA Fires a nearly 2 pound piece of fuel-tank foam insulation at a carbon-reinforced wing panel removed from the shuttle Atlantis and ends up with a 16 inch hole. While I believe that could have been what downed the shuttle... Didn't it have a coating of 6 inch thick tiles glued to it as well? Why does hitting the wing panel without tiles on it considered the same as hitting it with tiles on it? When they test bullet proof vests, do they do it without the kevlar?
Ok, the French government outlawed the use of "e-mail". in all government related business. Now they call it "courriel". A new word, essentially from "courrier electronique" (electronic mail)". They seem to think that their language is eroding so they want their own word. Seems to me that the sooner the whole world speaks the same language everywhere, the better it is for mankind, but what do I know? I suppose this is on the same lunatic thinking that makes the states (who have no official language whatsoever) print all their government docs in english and spanish. I suppose they're right. If I go to any other non english speaking country, they should learn my language right? I mean, anything less would be un-American! I propose that the US government should print their stuff in every language known to man. Why stop at just spanish? Fair is fair! And computer code should be translated into all languages as well. Why make the poor geeks learn english just to hack your system?
Zahra Kazemi, the freelance photographer from Canada murdered in Iran...
Hamid Reza Taraqi of the Islamic Coalition Society, insisted that Kazemi herself was to blame for her death.
"Kazemi was illegally taking photos, was detained and a situation developed naturally in the process of interrogation ... She was not tortured. It was due to her own physical condition. She herself should be blamed, not the ruling establishment," Taraqi said.
Um... is it me? I''m not sure if that statement is due to extreme arrogance or extreme stupidity. I'm leaning toward sheer stupidity, how about you?
A bill in congress would prevent people from suing restaurants and food manufacturers for making them fat. Uh, yeah, people are actually suing fast food shacks because their food made them fat. My question is, why the hell do we need a bill about this? Do smart lawyers think that other lawyers are stupid enough not to ask for receipts from these places for the last 20 years or so to prove they even patronized them once?
AOL says to reduce debt it's selling Warner Music's DVD and CD manufacturing businesses to a Canadian company for over $1 billion. The CD and DVD business is going to Ontario Canada based Cinram International Inc., which will take over manufacturing, packaging and distribution for Warner Music, Warner Home Video and New Line Cinema in North America and Europe. In the last few months, AOL sold its 50 percent stake in the Comedy Central cable channel to Viacom Inc. for $1.2 billion and shed an $800 million stake in Hughes Electronics Corp. They also settled a lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. for $750 million. It's also negotiating a sale of the Atlanta Hawks basketball team, the Atlanta Thrashers hockey team and the rights to the place they play, Philips Arena, to a Dallas car dealer. Analysts have said AOL Time Warner could reap $750 million selling those teams and baseball's Atlanta Braves.
So, let's see here. They cut losses by selling profitable enterprises and they will pay a company they just sold to package and distribute their stuff. Yep, sounds like a sure way to cut losses to me. Kind of like quitting your job so you can devote more time to your lemonade stand.
A vehicle control system that has been proven in Germany to cut down dramatically on accidents is almost non-existent in the states. Electronic stability control, a feature on one of every three vehicles in Europe, has yet to catch on among American drivers. Many have never even heard of it. Suppliers of stability control systems say they hope consumer demand, not government mandates, will persuade automakers to overcome their well-known aversion to added costs and offer the system on more vehicles.
Electronic stability control, which has different trade names, is a system that applies brakes to specific tires and decelerates if it senses a driver is veering off course. If a driver swerves to the left to avoid an animal in the road, for example, a vehicle with stability control will apply brakes to the outside front tire to prevent the vehicle from fishtailing.
Stability control was developed in Germany by Bosch Corp. and Mercedes-Benz and started appearing on luxury vehicles in the mid-1990s. In 1999, Mercedes was the first to make it standard in all its vehicles. According to a study of German government data released last year by Chrysler, accident rates for Mercedes vehicles in Germany fell by 29 percent between 1999 and 2000 after stability control became standard. Spurred by such data, Europe has adopted stability control much faster than the United States.
According to the president of U.S. operations for Continental Teves Inc., which markets electronic stability control... "In Europe, you have a much more sophisticated consumer that's much more in tune with safety technology, so they are driving it from a consumer demand standpoint." (I can really agree with that. It's a whole different ball park over there.) Some U.S. automakers have quietly responded to European demand. In Germany, stability control is standard on a three-door Ford Focus. In England, stability control is a $1,220 option on the same vehicle. In the U.S., it's a $1,625 option. I would imagine the car makers are waiting for the government to mandate here it so they can charge at least 2k.
CONCLUSION: Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.
- 1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Americans.
- 2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Americans.
- 3. The Japanese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Americans
- 4. The French drink excessive amounts of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Americans.
- 5. The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Americans.
New York outlaws smoking almost everywhere. New Jersey and Pennsylvania love it. New Yorkers living close to the borders are leaving the state in droves to eat, drink and be merry where it's legal. NY bars and restaurants report up to a 40% drop in revenue. Gee, the squeaky wheel gets the most oil, but in the case of the anti-smoker wheel... mebbe they should have just been replaced?
Well, not to worry. I'm sure NY will reconsider and license the places that allow it. Everybody wants a piece o' the action.
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