This is My Final Post on Blogger, I've Officially Moved to BOYSWEARPANTS.COM

THIS BLOG HAS OFFICIALLY MOVED TO http://boyswearpants.com!!!

THIS WILL BE THE LAST POST ON BLOGGER.

PLEASE UPDATE YOUR RSS FEEDS TO POINT HERE...

...OR SIGN UP FOR E-MAIL NOTIFICATIONS HERE.

I WILL BE CONVERTING ALL MY OLD POSTS TO THIS NEW SITE IN THE COMING DAYS AND WEEKS.

If you're wondering why I'm moving bloggin platforms, here is why...

PS: Thank you Antimedia, for introducing me to PowerBlogs. They are truly kick arse!

Once and For All...This is a Volunteer Army!

Dave Greten's post today rehashes the same old Charlie Rangel line that the NY Times and Left-Wing haters of any military action whatsoever have been dishing out since the invasion of Iraq back in '03.

Why aren't we on the homefront sacrificing more, doing more besides putting the magnetic bumper stickers on our cars?

Well, I actually receive news about troop morale from troops still in the field. My stepbrother just got back from Iraq and his unit was hit only a week after his return. Good people he knew died and he made it out. My father served during Reagan-era peace time, building the infrastructure that allowed us to reign victorious in Desert Storm and the only thing these gentlemen feel is regret that they could not have done more. Notice I didn't say that other American citizens could have done more, but that they couldn't have done more. This is the primary difference between the true soldier and the citizen who protests under the (to use a cliche) blanket of freedom that the soldier provides. It's about personal initiative and responsibility rather than finger pointing and pessimism.

This is a volunteer army and this is also not World War II, despite what Bill Maher and the Dave Gretens of the world would like us to believe. All the rubber we save won't amount to a lick of spit--our army needs Intel computer chips! This is a volunteer army of highly trained and specialized soldiers, many of whom would wipe the floor with most of the liberal intelligentsia in terms of both tactical and technical prowess. This is not a war of attrition and throwing more bodies at the front lines will do nothing to gain us victory.

A draft will not help this country because, quite frankly, most people that haven't already signed up for the military are not fit to serve in the military in terms of attitude, skill sets or talents.

So, please, those of you on the left, stop trying to drive a wedge between the soldier and the citizen and the soldier and their government--it won't happen. The American citizen, like the American soldier, is far wiser than the liberal intelligentsia of this country would like to believe.

If you guys really want to make a statement, follow the lead of Norman Morrison--I guarantee you that setting yourself on fire with a big sign that says "Stop the Killing" will at least earn you a blog entry on Boys Wear Pants Dot Com and a two second mention on the nightly news.

Other than that, who cares about your civilian outrage that cries for peace when we are being attacked daily from both inside and outside of our borders? Wise up before you lose the game for everyone, or was that your intentions from the start?

PS: For further schooling on this matter, see Antimedia's post today.

Politicians Still Don't Understand Basic Economics

Story Link

Hawaii is attempting to pass price-control legislation that would put a cap on gas prices.

Again, as Dr. Sowell points out, price controls lead only to shortages. One need only examine the dismal situation in New York City rent-controlled living to see the effects--shitty places to live that no owner bothers to keep up on because they aren't getting market value on the worth of their property.

Gasoline price controls were tried in the 70s by that face full of teeth ex-President, Jimmy Carter, who knew even less about economics than he did in dealing with Arab terrorists.

What was the result? Endless gas lines, rationing that required all kinds of beauracracy to administer and no free market allocation of scarce resources to their most efficient uses.

Thank God these socialists passing themselves off as citizens are being further marginalized every single day both off and online.

My First Article in The Pauper was Published Today

I was asked to begin contributing to the online ezine ARTreprenuer for the website The Pauper, which is a community of starving artists. I have some great ideas for articles that I feel will truly help those up and coming artists who are looking to make a living with their art.

More to come on this.

The article today is titled Why I'm Glad I am Not a Minority Writer.

Minton's DVD Review of The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert McNamara

Check out The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert McNamara

I watched this move twice--once for a general impression and twice to take notes.

My general impression is that this documentary is an invaluable piece of American History about an invaluable living resource about the Vietnam War--it's history and why it played out the way it did. McNamara was known by the elite in the press and universities as a real son-of-a-bitch during his tenure as Secretary of Defense (the same way that Rumsfeld is portrayed now in the press) but he came across in the movie as an authentic and emotional human being who happened to be an outright genius in matters of interpersonal relationships. economics, politics and war.

You simply must watch this movie. But until you get around to it, here are my notes:

Lesson 1: Empathize with Your Enemy

He paints Curtis LeMay as a lunatic who wanted to annihilate Cuba completely

Quote from Kruschev at the final crisis of the Cuban Missile Crisis: "We and you ought not pull on the ends of a rope which you have tied the knots of war. Because the more the two of us pull, the tighter the knot will be tied. And then it will be necessary to cut that knot. And what that would mean is not for me to explain to you. I have participated in two wars and know that war ends when it is rolled through cities and villages, everywhere sowing death and destruction; for such is the logic of war. If people do not display wisdom, they will clash like blind moles and then mutual annihilation will commence."

Lesson 2: Rationality will Not Save Us

"The end result of the cold war is this: 'The infallibility of human nature and nuclear weapons will destroy nations.'"

Castro recommended to Kruschev that they used nuclear weapons against the US even though that would have meant the total destruction of Cuba.

Lesson 3: There's Something Beyond One's Self

Lesson 4: Maximize Efficiency

50 square miles of Tokyo (a wooden city) was burned and killed 100,000 civilians in 1 night

Lesson 5: Proportionality Should be a Guideline in War

67 cities were 50-90% destroyed by firebomb before the nuclear bombs were dropped on Japan and this was all done by the command decision of Curtis LeMay

Lemay once said that if the US had lost the war, they would have been prosecuted as war criminals. "What makes it immoral if you lose and not if you win?"

Lesson 6: Get the Data

Lesson 7: Belief and Seeing are Often Both Wrong

President Kennedy picked out the spot he was buried in Arlington a few weeks before he was assassinated

The Vietnamese Communists believed that the US were coming in to replace the French as a colonial power to subjugate the into slavery

The Communists government ended up with exactly the same things the US was offering them before the violence commenced (Independence and Unification)

The Communists had been fighting the Chinese for thousands of years and claimed (in 1995) they were never pawns of the Chinese as the US suspected (and went to war over)

Lesson 8: Be Prepared to Reexamine Your Reasoning

He believes that we should never apply economic, political or military power unilaterally and that if we would have followed this reasoning in Vietnam, we never would have been there fighting (none of our allies supported us)

"If we can’t persuade nations with comparable values of the merit of our cause, we’d better reexamine our reasoning."

Lesson 9: In Order to Do Good, You May Have to Engage in Evil

"How much evil must we do in order to do good?"

"At times you will have to engage in evil, but minimize it."

"War is Cruelty"--General Sherman prior to burning Atlanta to the ground

Lesson 10: Never Say Never

War is the President's responsibility

If Kennedy had lived, he doesn't think that we would have had 500,000 men in Vietnam

Lesson 11: You Can't Change Human Nature

"The Fog of War means that war is so complex that it is beyond the human mind to comprehend all the variables. Our judgment and frame of mind are not adequate and we kill people."

"It isn't because we aren't rational; we are rational. But reason has limits."

TS Elliot quote, "We shall not cease from exploring and at the end of our exploration we will return to where we started and know the place for the first time." This is how McNamara feels today.

Epilogue

[About not speaking out against the war after her was fired by LBJ] "I was damned if I did and damned if I didn't. So I'd rather be damned if I didn't."

AP Poll Yields that 60 Percent Believe that World War III is Likely

Story Link

Reality is the thoughts we think, both individually and collectively. If we don't change our thoughts, and therefore our actions which spring from our thoughts, we must engage in Risk Management to circumvent the ultimate disaster from happening as a result of the most disastrous actions and thoughts.

By the way, here is a map of which states are going to face the most nuclear fallout and damage from a full-scale nuclear attack within our borders. (Hat tip to Fark.com)

Some People Simply Do Not Deserve to Live...

This is a feature I will be adding that I got from a post that AntiMedia made about a week and a half ago.

So, here are this week's people who do not deserve to live and they both regrettably come from Cincinnati, Oh...

1. An 18-month old girl died yesterday after being raped and brutally beaten by the boyfriend of her mother. Story Link
2. American flags, lining the lawn of the mother- and father-in-law of fallen U.S. Army Pfc. Timothy Hines Jr., were heaped in a pile early Saturday and burned under a car parked in front of the home. Story Link

These are the situations when it would be nice and just to have Paul Kersey trolling the streets, finding these scourges of society and removing them forever.

Once Again This Week, I'm Eating Crow...

Story Link

Earlier this week, I posted an entry about the British police shooting that guy in the station and assumed he was a terrorist--he wasn't. I don't want to be flippant with human life because it is precious; but as an Arab, you absolutely cannot run from the police during a time when fellow Arabs have bombed the city in which you run. It makes no more sense to do this than it does to be a black man running from the police in the dark alleys and streets of downtown Cincinnati and then make a move to grab your wallet without verbally telegraphing what you are doing to the pursuing officer.

This is the type of thing that riots are made out of.

I am deeply sorry for this life of innocent life; however, I would still like it to stand as an example of what will happen to anyone that comes into our countries with anything but the best intentions of pursuing their own happiness provided that that pursuit does not infringe upon the lives or property of other citizens.

Clearly, we still have some ways to go here...


UPDATE: Leading UK Muslims still support the police's shoot to kill policy despite the fact that it led to the death of an innocent man. "The civil liberties of those whose lives are threatened have to take priority over the rights of someone assessed in good faith by highly trained police officers to be a suicide bomber." Story Link

UPDATED UPDATE: The Brazillian guy (is this better my anonymous poster from the Great State that spawned John Adams?) that was shot, likely ran because his Visa was expired (Story Link). Once again, the guy simply shouldn't have run. So, let's just call it an extreme use of deportation powers...

Is it Weird...

...that I love the show The Little House on the Prairie and that I own all eight seasons that are currently out on DVD right now? And that I consider the time that my wife, my son and I sit down to watch as amongst the most rewarding and serene family moments we have in the chaos that is our life right now?

...that I let my dog lick my toes after I get out of the shower. She's always there waiting to do it, so I figure, why not? Who else in the world is willing to lick my toes besides my awesome boxer dog?

...that I think my cat looks like the Luck Dragon from The NeverEnding Story and that sometimes I move his mouth and say, "Atrayu!!!"

Read the Draft of the Iraqi Constitution as of July 20, 2005

Iraqi Constituion

I will be reading this more in depth and commentating on anything "not right" or "extraordinary." But we should each be reading this--after all, isn't this the whole reason we are over there in the first place?

Microsoft Switches Horses in Mid-Stream

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Microsoft is officially changing the name of its next generation Operating Platform from Longhorn to Windows Vista.

Personally, I think this is all a bunch of crap to sell needless software. I think they should let XP go open source like Linux and give up the ghost--why staff legions of customer service reps to service a product that the free market could make far better anyway.

Now, I'm no computer programming expert, but I thought that the move away from a DOS-based system with XP was the ultimate in a Microsoft OS. Why not just make that one better rather than forcing their customers to get used to yet another platform?

But that's just me. I won't be upgrading until I absolutely have to and by then I'll probably have wised up and switched to Apple.

You Gotta Have Goals...

Story Link

This guy built a storm chasing tank to drive into tornadoes and film them and study them from the inside.

It may sound silly but I plan on retiring my 4Runner one day to turn it into a storm chasing vehicle as well. I want it completely decked out with all the HAM Radio and internet/satellite access one can acquire in a mobile unit.

Granted, it's low on the priority list of lifetime goals but a goal it remains nonetheless.

AntiMedia Has Just Posted the Best Blogroll and Linking Policy I Have Ever Read

AntiMedia's Blogroll and Linking Policy

My regular readers know that I respect AntiMedia's site above all others in the Blogosphere because it is was it is. I believe that he has the clearest vision for what his blog is and goes about administrating it in the most efficient and effective matter.

But consider when he says this about Blogrolling and linking:

"My blogroll is in alphabetical order. The order implies nothing about what I personally think of the sites...

"The fact that I link to a site does not mean that I agree with everything written there. Nor do I expect anyone to agree with everything I write. (If you do, there's probably something wrong with you.) Part of the greatness of the blogosphere is the exposure that you get to a wide range of ideas, expertise and opinions. If you're not taking advantage of that, you're missing a great deal. If you feel threatened by reading things you disagree with or that make you uncomfortable, then you probably need to take some confidence pills..."

And the best statement of all...

"I write for me, I blogroll for me, I read other blogs for me. I'm not in this for fame or fortune (nor do I care about those things), and I'm certainly not in it to make anyone feel good...The truth is, if I didn't write, I would explode."

That just about says it all, I believe.

Flailing Wildly

Story Link

London Police have just evacuated the the subways again. I have a feeling this one might turn out to be a hoax but at any length, if the Islamists are trying to instill fear that they could attack at any time, anywhere; I believe they are accomplishing just the opposite.

They are coming across as flailing wildly at a last minute hope of hitting something with a hail mary.

They are coming off as looking like a bunch of desperate amateurs and I do believe that the general Muslim population is beginning to turn on them because their Holy Cause is costing a lot of innocent Muslim lives--I'm sure that wasn't in the Jihad pamphlet...

Electronic Mourning

Mary Rhein Memorial Link

I am subscribed to a Yahoo groups listproc for my 1993 graduating class from high school in Cincinnati.

I received an e-mail this morning from a girl's name that I didn't recognize but her message got my attention immediately. One of the teachers from my high school (that I never had in class and didn't recognize at all) has just died from Ovarian cancer.

Her husband put up a memorial on the web with a short journal entry about how he felt about his wife, her life and death. There are also about six photos to put a picture with the grief.

The emotions I felt were real for this woman's passing and I didn't have to get dressed up, take a trip to Cincinnati and mingle with a bunch of people I didn't know in order to say a short prayer for her husband (because only fools pray for the dead--it's the living who need our blessings in order to deal with their enormous loss) and celebrate her life as a teacher who undoubtedly touched many lives of people that I know and care about directly. I did my mourning online and it meant more to me than if I would have made the physical trip.

So, here's to celebrating the life of a teacher you never knew existed but whose existence made this world a better place.

Thank you Mary Rhein for leaving your mark in the character of the students you taught during your too brief tenure in this life.

This blog's for you...

Another Reason I Love the Blogosophere...

...is because it is adding a new level of freedom for women to express themselves, both intellectually and sensually.

Check out Jessika's blog.

There's no dirty pictures there but there are some sexy ones and these have all the more impact because she's got some great ideas and is a great writer (representin' the East Coast, baby!).

And here's Sunshine Coyote, perhaps one the kindest people I've come across on the Internet in my five years of posting (I hard coded a blog for two years before I ever even found out about Blogger).

I love the fact that women of the Western World are now being given an opportunity to share their minds and images of their bodies to a white-male dominated world and are actually getting far more respect for it than if they tried to do this in a corporate environment.

Jessika, Sunshine, and all the other women of the blogosphere--I love you! I don't want to have affairs with you, I don't want talk dirty to you, but I do want to hear from you and no guy will ever refuse a panty shot--I don't care how happily married he is.

Hell, my wife is even goading me into having an online conversation about my parenting skills (I still haven't responded yet) in the hopes that other wives can begin engaging their husbands likewise at home--it truly is a new world we are building here.

So, rock on, Goddesses of Cyberspace. You are loved and appreciated!

"I'm Convinced Tim Burton is an Asshole..."

...these are the first words that my Brother-in-Law spoke as we got out of the theatre last Saturday night (date night for the pairs of us who have young kids--this usually means cocktails, a movie that makes you almost pass out and drunken sweaty married sex where you pass out afterwards and are awoken to the rays of Sunday sunshine).

But Tony wrote a review of the film that got me thinking about the movie all over again. In some circles, linking to Tony Pierce is like carrying a cup of water from the drinking fountain to the swimming pool and saying, "Look everybody, WATER!," but I thought it was worth revisiting the movie since my blog moves in some of the other sectors of the blogosphere that might not have been introduced to his writing yet.

At any length, Tony proved to me with this post that he is indeed a serious writer and well worth listening to culturally (sorry Tone, I'm a hard headed muthafugga--if this week has proved nothing else, it's that).

I totally agree with Tony about the movie not being quite right. I have a feeling that the studio really needed a kid's movie to market this summer and thought, why let's take Burton's movie and slice it up, tone it down and make it more family-oriented.

Big mistake.

You can tell the movie wanted to go darker, to hit that same place where the first one did when Gene Wilder, after giving the kids their everlasting gobstopper and seeing them fighting over it, exclaimed, "Everyone has had one and one is enough for everyone." This one statement is a clarion call for individual freedom and to seize the day of living a life of integrity because that's ultimately all that matters. Fantastic Bastard and I still exchange this statement like some in Church quote the Golden Rule.

So, before I get to rambly here--let me just say that I don't think the movie was a total waste of time and money like I initially did but I would have rather had seen Wedding Crashers. And I don't think Tim Burton's an asshole but I do think it's pathetic that once again an artist has been made to toe a corporate line that sucks the spirit out of their creation.

I plan on putting an end to that one day soon...

You Called Down the Thunder, Well Now You've Got It...

London Police Kill Terrorist in Train Station

Oh yeah, nothing like a little old world justice to set the world wobbling back on its axis in the perfect tilted position to catch the rays of the sun and keep the equinoxes and solstices in balance.

Britain may be filled with a bunch of mustache socialists walking around with brandy and cigars, but they are also still the land of Richard the Lion Heart and Winston Fugging Churchill and today they are back at the top of my list of countries I would consider filing for double citizenship in.

Wars are nasty business, not boardroom meetings about corporate takeovers and "subtle" messages so as not to upset the shareholders. Up until now, that is how the war was sold and it's about time that we see a little blood on the screen that didn't come from a dirty backpack bomb in the dusty lands where nothing grows but hatred and jealously over what didn't happen thirteen hundred years ago (talk about holding a grudge!).

Let it be known that we have entered a new phase in the War on Terror, one that could get louder, bloodier and a lot less "seevalized, m'alord." We are approaching the eye of the storm where the sounds and motions of normal life may appear as if drawn off course on some magnetic vector that doesn't conform to physics in the every day reality of La-La land some in this country still delude themselves into believing we live in.

Oh yeah, and we're going to win and we're going to see a new Age of Middle Eastern Individual Freedom unlike the world has ever known. I predict that we will see the cure for cancer as well as the invention of a compact cold fusion device that will change the economics of the world forever come out of the genius of the Middle Eastern mind--and that history will have the Bush and Blair doctrines and the steeled resolve of patriotic American and British citizens to thank for it.

Who's Gonna Be the First Jackass to Step Up...

House OKs Extending Patriot Act Story Link

...and accuse the Bush Administration of orchestrating the London bombings in order to secure the renewal of the Patriot Act. Michael Moore? Cynthia McKinney? Charlie Rangel?

C'mon, someone knows they want to...

Who Would Have Thought Watching Lesbians for the Drama and Not Just the Sex Could Be So Fun

So, I've been catching up on all those cable shows that have come out on DVD since I gave up cable last September in order to purchase this laptop I am writing on right now (priorities).

I finally got around to watching the first season of The L Word from Showtime with the hot chick from Flashdance who has miraculously gotten even hotter in the 20 years since that movie.

I have to say that the show was pretty decent and not just from the lesbian sex and boobies, boobies, boobies (the only movie that ever overloaded me on boobies was Breast Men with Chris Cooper and David Schwimmer about the invention of the breast implant--mother of god I saw tits for days after that in my sleep and they weren't all pleasant dreams).

Let me say that I found the characters three-dimensional and the conflict engaging. Some of the story arcs were a bit wooden but it was just the first season. Of course, it was no Six Feet Under and it definitely was not The Sopranos but any show that includes a Leonard Cohen song already scores high points in my book.

That being said, I thought that the lesbian rape/rough sex scene in the final episode was a bit uncomfortable to watch but not as uncomfortable as the fight/separation scene between Carmella and Tony at the end of season 4 of The Sopranos, Madon, that was ruthless!

So, I'll give The L Word 3 1/2 boobies out of 5.

Would You Not Shite Your Breetches...

Story Link

OK, not all Arabs look alike but what happens when you happen to have the same name as one of the terrorist bombers and a world-wide terrorist alert goes out with your picture wrongly inserted?

...Oh yeah, and you're a 16-year old kid!

He probably aged ten years today.

If World War II Took Place in a Chatroom...

Hat tip to Fark

They Come in Pints? I'm Gettting One...

Reverend Sensing posted this awesome news today. The US Mint is issuing a 2005 Marine Corps silver dollar and I'm getting one. You will to if you're cool.

This is What I Felt Like After the Recent Blog Wars

Hat tip to Mensix.com--check them out because they're cool!

According to this Study, If You Are Addicted to the Pot Focker, the Best Thing for You to Do is Get a Wife

Story Link

Proof That California is Going to Fall In the Ocean As Punishment for Their Wickedness and Sin...

Hat Tip to MenSix

"San Francisco - A man died of internal injuries from sex with a stallion at a ranch used by a bestiality ring, police in the northwestern United States state of Washington said on Monday.

The man suffered fatal trauma while being sodomised by a stallion at a stud farm that catered to men who wanted sex with animals, Enumclaw Police Commander Eric Sortland told AFP."

Google Maps Moon's Surface

This is Too Cool!

Seth Godin Has Some Great Advice for Would-Be Non-Fiction Authors...

Seth's Blog

...and I'll have more when my book comes out in September.

The Only Bad Thing About RSS...

Check Out Ed Adkins's Blog

...is that it totally negates all the HTML and CSS artistry that people spend hours and hours on. For example, as I always do, I follow the breadcrumbs to peoples' sites that post comments here and I came across Ed Adkins's blog. It looks pretty friggin' sweet! Some blogs look like shit and some blogs are like walking into a living room with a blazing fire going and plush leather furniture--that's what Ed's blog looks like to me.

The only bad thing is that I probably won't ever see it again unless he calls attention to it in his RSS feeds, which I subscribed to and will keep a subscription (this is because he referenced a Mike D line from the Beastie Boys album "Paul's Boutique"--that was enough for me to know he was cool).

There is a division in blog-land between those interested in content and those interested mostly in appearances--I'm a content guy so RSS works best for me--unfortunately I also appreciate all the hard work that goes into making these sites look so good and regret that I don't have time personally drop in every day. So, sorry about not checking on your stuff in person Ed, but I look forward to seeing what comes out of your blog.

Another site I thought looked pretty cool was Ben Allbright's blog (even though he trashed my writing--I ain't a hater and have no problem sending people to his site--I think the online people are smart enough to make up their own mind on what's good or not).

Keep it real gentlemen.

Lest You Hath Forgetten Why We Fight

The Anchoress Photo Montage of Why We Fight This War on Terror

This is well worth checking out just to keep things in perspective.

Hat tip to Michelle, the smoking little conservative hottie that is making quite a stir in a field of arrogant white male bloggers and a Hat Tip to JD for turning me on to her.



Remember This Guy? That's Because US News Wasn't Allowed to Show Him to Us. Let this image be burned into your mind. If it doesn't steele your resolve then nothing will.

There is No Greater Dog Alive...

You might think your dog is greater but you'd be wrong. Your dog doesn't love me but my dog does--get it?

Bad Harry Potter Synchroncity and the Second Wave of London Bombings

Does anyone else find it eerie that The Half-Blood Prince essentially opens with London in a state of panic just like we are seeing unfolding on the news?

It makes you wonder if we have our own He-Who-Must-Not-Be Named around--wait, we do and he is living off dialysis in a cave somewhere in Afghanistan.

Also, it is absolutely pathetic how MSM goes to such great lengths to appear politically correct even when reporting about a terrorist attack taking place in front of our eyes. Consider this from Fox News Dot Com today:

"One person reported hurt; larger bombs may have failed; police say not 'major incident'; reports that suspect surrounded in hospital; another man with beard seen fleeing one station."

Why don't they just come out and say, "An Arabic Fascist Islamist cocksucker who believes that murdering innocent people (especially his own people) is somehow justified in God's eyes, is running down the street about to get fourteen semi-automatic rifles shoved up his ass in full public display of everyone?"

They should haul this prick out to the tower of London, get a fishing knife, disembowel him, cut off his head and put it on a spike on the tower like they used to in the old days. My friends, that would be a clear message about how much more of this terrorist activity the civilized world is willing to stand for.

"Who Told You to Put a Balm On? Did I Tell You To Put a Balm On?"

(Here is an attempt to get more down-to-earth on this blog)

I am shutting the laptop all day tomorrow (except for my actual work that I get paid for). I write via wireless LAN so I'm all over the house but my favorite spot is at the kitchen table where the room is naturally lit, etc.

Well, I have this habit of reading blogs and articles with my left-hand positioned on my left knee. I woke up in the middle of the night with this irritating feeling on my left palm and when I came downstairs to do some midnight RSS filtering, I realized that I had been putting my palm on my knee so much for the last few days that I had actually done a little damage to my skin.

So, I'm letting that be a wake-up call. I have put on some Williams-Sonoma hand balm which I keep right next to the sink for after dishes application and I'm going to be cracking open the next Harry Potter book which my wife is now done with and drifting into obscurity for the weekend as I approach my final work week before I get laid off from my corporate job and have to start seriously looking for replacement income.

As an aside, my wife finished the Harry Potter book bawling like an infant. She better not have killed off Dumbledore--take Ron but not Dumbledore--and don't any of you bastage Muggles post any spoilers to this post either or I'll track you down and turn you into a three-toed tree sloth.

Peace Internet Lurkers

Scotty's Ashes Are Going to Be Sent into Outer Space

Story Link

I had no idea about this, but Reverend Sensing noted this about Doohan on his blog:

"A Canadian, he was an artillery officer during World War II (which accounts for the fact that he was such a class act). He landed on Normandy’s Juno Beach on June 6, 1944 and that night was machine gunned, taking four bullets in the leg, one in the chest and one that took off a finger."

I learned from Scotty to always build in extra time in your project deadline assessments to your bosses, that way you always come out "a meerackle wurker."

RIP my man--you helped me see the stars with wonder.

When a Man is Wrong and the Benefits and Drawbacks of Pissing Off Tony Pierce

The hardest apology I ever had to make was the first one I made to my son when he was 13-months old. I was engaged in writing, lost in the zone and he was tugging at my pant leg and whining about something. This went on for about five minutes or so until I finally exploded and yelled at him, “Will you give you me a God Damned minute here?”

I watched it in his eyes. I saw some kind of a death in those baby blues and I could almost feel myself tumble a couple levels inside his little head and heart. My God, what had I done? By the time I was man enough to ask myself this question, he had already hit the tears and it became a big production.

I endured a couple minutes of this wailing and my wife’s scowling (there’s no justifying that to a mother), until finally I put my ego aside, closed the laptop, went over to him, picked him up, hugged him and made sure he was looking into my eyes.

I said, “Buddy, Daddy was wrong to yell and he is very sorry.” He was playing with his matchbox cars two minutes later and everything was alright again.

I became a true man that day. But sometimes I slide back, like we all do.

I’ve been a real prick the last two days and I’m not going to give any more excuses or justifications because that’s what got me in trouble in the first place. I attacked Tony, Wil and Shane without provocation and while the intention behind my attacks might have had a justified point, the whole thing eventually became like the frigging pink spots in The Cat in the Hat until it was all pink snow everywhere.

Well, here comes little Cat Z with his VOOM!

Tony, Wil and Shane—I’m sincerely sorry for calling you guys out. You didn’t deserve that and I hope you’ll accept my apology as sincere, as a man who has put aside his ego and all the bullshit to get down to the puckered up asshole of the matter.

I was a dick. I was wrong. I’m sorry. It’s over.

With that said, I am turning back on the comments from my initial blog post (here) and I have toned down the rhetoric and personal attacks in my manifesto. Hopefully clearing the air here will allow anyone still interested to get past the emotions and address the issue I was trying to bring up (through about three million unnecessary words) about what civic responsibility bloggers that get significant market share of blog traffic have to their audiences in terms of effecting social change.

So, hopefully this squashes all the beef out there and we can all make nice again.

On the plus side, pissing off Tony Pierce led to a 1,100% increase in traffic to Boys Wear Pants Dot Com; but this not something I would recommend for all the kiddies with newbie blogs and egos that bruise easily to go about doing. This whole frigging mess has been like trying to reach down to pull a turd out through your throat.

And I forgive the person who attacked my wife’s intelligence and character, although let it be known that you should never ever fuck with a man’s family online—that shit could make a man in the wrong frame of mind get into some straight up G shit.

And another thing, blog comments should be scrutinized with the most flexible grammatical yardstick. People are bound to misspell shit and get tenses and all that crap wrong when they’re writing in the heat of an emotional moment.

Again, I hope this squashes all this shit and I hope you all keep coming back here. If you want, sign up for my newsletter where I really let loose to a private opt-in audience about shit I can't make public less it come back to bite me on the boo-boo one day (like this did).

Tony, Shane and Wil have the West Coast flava but I’ll be keeping it real in the Heart of it All.

And I was serious about the school of Art thing--it's going to happen. Shit, I might even have these three dudes come out and teach a class someday.

Together we can all change this world for the better by focusing on our relationships and attitudes to those around us. If you asked me a week ago if I would be apologizing to the entire blogosphere for my behavior, I would have told you to stop eating retard-sandwiches. But life is both funny and fucked up sometimes.

Don’t underestimate or cheapen the power of this amazing tool of freedom we have been given to enjoy and speak to each other with. And don't forget that there are human beings on the other end of these virtual connections--treat them with respect when you can (I'm talking to myself here).

That new world is right there and all we have to do is choose to touch it and make it real.

Sincerely,

Josh

Grand Theft Auto Gets an Official Video Game Rating of "Adults Only"

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Congress Agrees to Extend Daylight Savings Time for Two Months Next Year

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Imagine how this will affect the industries that are light-sensitive (like lawn companies, construction, etc.). Consider that those industries will be using more gasoline and other scarce resources during those extra working hours and what a demandthat will put on other sectors of the economy, further driving up oil prices and the like so that John Consumer has to pay even more for gas.

If Congress keeps this up, we'll be paying European prices for gasoline and other raw resources in no time.

Free Service Scans the Web and Delivers TV and Radio Programs Straight to Your PC

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How Not to Talk to a Judge When You're A 16-Year Old Punk Ass On Trial

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The teen answered "nope" faster than Disney could ask questions.
"Let him ask the question before you answer," Owens told the witness.
"It's 'nope,' " the witness said.
"Are you going to answer no to all my questions?" Disney asked.
"I don't know. Keep asking."
"You're getting real close to contempt now," Owens warned.
"Well you all are getting real close to pissin' me off," the witness replied.
That was enough. Owens ordered the boy to serve 30 days in juvenile detention.

Study Finds the US is Healthier Than Ever, But At What Cost?

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Of course, it's all costing us 11% more annually to stay this healthy, but they don't mention that.

Some Straight Up Scruffy Looking Nerf Herder Shizz

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The army is about to bust out the Active Denial System weapon for riot control in Iraq. This weapon fires "a 95-gigahertz microwave beam at rioters to cause heating and intolerable pain in less than five seconds."

We are about to turn insurgents into french bread pizzas when they start mobbing. If you think this stuff won't be used by the National Guard or even SWAT to quell mass domestic disturbances, you are out of your mind.

I lived in Cincinnati when the riots took place in 2002 and I guarantee you that they would have hauled this out to shut down the looters if they could have.

I hope no one I know is ever on the receiving end of one of these attacks. One thing's for sure, they'll bit a bit more crispy if they make it out.

A Cosmological Query Regarding the Nature of Galaxies and the Obervation of the "Light Smears" of the Past

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Astronomers are intently studying a dusty disk around a star that is most likely the result of a collision between heavenly bodies similar in size to the Earth and the Moon.

The crazy thing is that what they are studying now is really 1,000 years old--so, in essence, all long-field space research is a study of the past. Consider that light travels at a finite speed and that we are essentially studying the synchronous motion of light waves while at the same time we are moving in relative motion around our own star.

One asks the question if it is at all possible that the "billions and billions" galaxies that we believe fill up the universe are actually just a smaller number of galaxies that have "light smears" and that what we are really observing is the same galaxies in two different locations at two different points in space and time. If this is possible, it would go a long way toward explaining the lack of abundant "dark matter" needed to hit the critical mass that allows the universe to remain at a steady state where the strong, nuclear, magnetic and gravity forces are all in perfect balance.

It is a notion at least worth entertaining.

Holy Sheeite Muslim! Chevron Won Out in the Unocal Deal!!!

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This is really a surprise to me, the fact that Unocal did not walk away from the signed deal with Chevron to sell for a whopping $17.5 billion.

See, most of Unocal's oil wells are in China anyway and a purchase of this magnitude would have desperately eased China's oil concerns (see thispost yesterday for more on this).

The thing is, it wasn't just a $1.5 billion pot sweetener being offered by CNOOC, it was the fact that a Communistic government that has been arming themselves for war with the US and which has been ratcheting up the militaristic metaphors in their international statements is vying to control a significant oil-producing company.

Oil is not only the life blood of every economy; it is the major function of war. Wars start with words but they are built on oil and who controls that oil is a significant factor in any war room preparation.

I think this is the right decision for right now, but that once world tensions get ratcheted down, it might make sense to see that China at least gets some say in the oil produced in their land. But that all depends on how they start acting towards Taiwan and how well they reign in their crazy generals from threatening us with nuclear annihilation.

Hat tip to Michelle, who broke the news first in my RSS aggregator--good job, girl!

"Go Ahead and Draw--I'll Make Ya' Famous!" Thoughts on Positioning in the Aftermath of the Ideology of Blogging Wars

The comments are still turned off on this post because I want it to stand as a firm mission statement and manifesto to the Blogosphere. But I have toned down the rhetoric and personal attacks to make it more digestible for everyone.

--Josh--Thursday July 21, 2005

During my freshman year at writing school, a fellow writer, a lesbian named Tracy something (sorry, one too many bong hits before class carried her last name away from me forever) told me that I was like a One Man Crusade.

I woke up in the middle of the night with a single word blinking in my brain like a beacon of inspiration--POSITION! Is that what this whole little mind war was about yesterday?

Where do I want to position this blog to effect the most positive change in individuals? See, individuals is the key word here because I'm not interested in addressing social groups--that is the way of the half-wit liberal and has been tried for over a hundred years (you know the old saying, "Communism has only killed 100 million, let's give it another chance.")

It is the individual, and not the pathetic and herded social group, which is the measure of true freedom--the kind where you start getting into the "Endowed by the Creator" stuff and liberals start sweating like an Italian hooker that took a wrong turn and ended up inside Vatican City.

The whole point of yesterday's drama was to ask these BloGods of cyberspace, who command platforms that connect to thousands and thousands of people daily, "Okay, now that you have had the greatest democratic tool of communication ever conceived dropped into your laps; what are you going to do with it?"

The answer I seemed to get from Shane was that he was here to entertain himself primarily and what I got from his audience is that this was A-Okay with them, that's what they sign up for every day when they check in on his site, and that they didn't need any pipsqueak with a big vocabulary and an uncheckable ego coming in to ask them any four part questions that might bust their comfort zones wide open like hymens in a horse jumping contest.

Now, if that's what people want to read about online then how can I dare fault Shane and Wil and Tony for giving them what they want--the free market speaks and responds to itself like this in a myriad of ways each day. But I'm left asking myself is that what type of audience I want? Is that the positioning (for you marketing geeks out there) that I want to set myself up in?

Boys Wear Pants is one of the self-proclaimed Three Horseman of the New Media. This triumverate of a juggernaut in the Information War includes AntiMedia, a guy who absolutely wipes the floor with Mainstream Media each and every day and makes no apologies for it--just like me; and the triple-terror is rounded out by a writer you've never heard about but who will someday be famous, an aging Vietnam War Vet named JD who has staked his claim, and his blog, at the Mouth of the Brazos ["Clap clap clap--deep in the heart of Texas"]. JD will eat your soul for lunch and ask for second helpings--and he also makes no apologies. Trust me gang, the battles don't even need to be fought--we've already won the war by attitude alone.

No one else has mojo like the Horsemen but we are also individuals with our own respective audiences. By allowing our networks to interact organically, we are unstoppable. But that brings me back to the positioning of my Blog.

One blog cannot rely on links alone to be ultimately successful. I don't see this Information War as a contest for blog links alone in that light; after all--Hitler had a lot of sunshine patriots and summer soldiers hitching their hyperlinks to his wagon when his star was on the rise also.

I know that I don't want my audience behaving towards my guests like the fans at the Isle of Wight festival or the Hell's Angels at Altamont. No one needs to have their character degraded or the honor and intelligence of their loved ones insulted because their ideas are different and challenge the weltanschauung of others. They're just ideas, not backpack bombs--even though ideas can be far more damaging to the entrenched powers that be than any frontal assault or sideways sucker punch of driving massive vehicles into massive structures to effect massive physical damage in a compacted moment of time.

Ideas don't work like that and Information Wars are more like an extended session with the Happy Painter where the enemy dies smiling, thinking that they've won the battle. (Inconstheivable!)

I have often told close friends, when we argue points of social change (because that's what I got high and did in college--what did you do? Watch Dumb and Dumber again?), that a mass movement of social groups is not effective in bringing about positive social change. In fact, if you do the historical math, you'll find that every mass movement (including the growth of Christianity as an empire) resulted in the misery and death of thousands and millions of people.

No, no, no. True revolution (think Philadelphia 1776) is distinguished from petty rebellion (think Los Angeles 1992) in that where a rebellion is just people venting emotions by tearing shit up and pillaging; a revolution occurs only with a complete paradigm shift in the individual. When this same shift occurs in multiple individuals at the same time, you have what historian Paul Johnson refers to as a "Great Awakening". It's happened in America before at least three times (once, coincidentally, at the germination of the Revolutionary War) and it's happening again right now and blogs are going to play a major part in it.

This time, like last time, the revolution will not be televised--it will be online. The key generals of this Information War will not be the bloggers interested only in getting their feelings and mundane thoughts out there for rootless thousands to ho and hum over--that stuff is okay but the ratio here should be 5:1 (five posts of substance for every one session of literary masturbation). The generals are the self-actualized people who are grabbing life by the balls and pulling the world around them into a better place.

Let it be known that bloggers are here to stay and they carry far more weight and impact than nightly news reporters, talk show radio hosts, cable analysis shows, and newspaper opinion columnists dare to give us credit for. In fact, our punch is Ivan Drago and our stamina is Rocky Balboa--Main Stream Media have no chance against us and they know it. We're more diverse. We're more interesting. And you can't take out a swarm of mosquitos in attack mode--just ask Trent Lott, Jayson Blair and Dan Rather.

The game just got serious but the song remains the same.

So Get Ready for Greatness

I am going to close this manifesto by declaring the age of Hollywood and New York control of American art and information to be officially dead!

The Midwest has held this country together as a culture for over two hundred years and Ohio has been the heart of it all ever since the first big brutus sumbitch from the Ohio Company crossed the Ohio river and the Delaware Indians dubbed him Buckeye.

Ohio is already the number one source for quality Independent Music in the nation (check out my buddy's band Miranda Sound for proof) and I will establish a University of Art here named The Joseph Campbell School of Proper Art which will instruct by invitation only and will be the premier artistic university and studio in the world.

I will build a film school and studio to rival George Lucas's Letterman Digital Arts Center and I will combine it with a music school and studio and a writing school that is founded upon the peer group workshop. I and the world experts I will hire are going to teach artists how to become masters of their own fate and lords of their own artistic visions. I am going to crack open the nut of the Midwest and connect the genius artistry we have here with the rest of the world. I am sick and tired of watching talented people get shut out of the Right and Left coast systems of information and entertainment publishing simply because of where they live.

I am talking about effecting a brand new human renaissance right here in our time.

I did not say that I'd like to do these things. I will do these things and that self-actualized statement is exactly what sets my position as distinct from every other person on the Internet and in the world. I don't need any more marketing sessions. I don't need to call Seth Godin--the IdeaVirus is right here in front of you.

Consider this a manifesto and a mission statement; and hold on to the check because it will be cashed one day very soon.

This One Man Crusade just stormed the castle and stole the Queen.

Check mate.

Socialist Governments Always Seem to Run into Problems When It Comes to Business Innovation

BBC NEWS Science/Nature Europe moving in 'R&D slow lane'

Perhaps this is because socialist governments (and I'm including our own in this light) are concerned only with political choices instead of economic choices.

Thomas Sowell defines the difference in his masterpiece Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One as:

"Political thinking tends to conceive of policies, institutions, or programs in terms of their hoped-for results--'drug prevention' programs, 'profit-making' enterprises, 'public-interest' law firms, 'gun control' laws, and so forth. But for purposes of economic analysis, what matters is not what goals are being sought but what incentives and constraints are being created in pursuit of those goals."

Dr. Sowell goes on to finally say:

"The point is not simply that various policies may fail to achieve their purposes. The more fundamental point is that we need to know the actual characteristics of the processes set in motion--and the incentives and contraints inherent in such characteristics--rather than judging these processes by their goals.

"Many of the 'unintended consequences' of policies and programs would have been foreseeable from the outset if these processes had been analyzed in terms of the incentives and contraints they created, instead of in terms of the desirablity of the goals they proclaimed.

"Once we start thinking in terms of the chain of events set in motion by particular policies--and following these events beyond stage one--the world begins to look very different."

He's basically talking about the difference between critical thinking and going along with the herd because it's comfortable and sounds good.

Master Sowell has spoken. You may kneel and kiss his ring.

PocketBook Activism: Eff You if You Don't Like It

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See, you've got to respect self-actualized people like this--people who see something wrong and just fix it. This guy got pissed off at hiking gas prices and converted his car to run on diesel and used cooking oil.

These are the types of activists that you have to respect. They don't march. They don't bitch. They don't lobby congress as a soul-sucking special interest group. They see a problem and fix it. And piss on anyone who doesn't like it--they are not variables in the solution anyway.

I love it and I am proud that these families are fellow Ohio citizens. I told you we had more bounce here than all y'all combined.

If You Need Any More Proof that Hollywood is Creatively Bankrupt, Here You Go...

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5,000 Year Old System of Peruvian Blogging Discovered

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It was a good idea back then and an even better one now.

Man Uses Laptop in Court to Pull Up a Google Map on a Hijacked Wi-Fi Connection and Beat His Traffic Ticket

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A prime example of citizens arming themselves with the knowledge and know-how to take the reigns of self-government firmly in hand and effect positive change for themselves. Every court room should have a desktop set up with a projector and screen that can be used for presenting evidence to the jury.

Perhaps this will lessen the death grip that lawyers have on our lives.

Hat tip to Fark

While Britain is Getting Tough on Terror, They are Getting Soft in the Head on Education

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"THE concept of 'failure' should be removed from the British education system and be replaced with 'deferred success,' according to a motion being considered by a teaching union."

Here is proof that the sausage factory from Pink Floyd The Wall is still alive and well and kicking in Britain.

If You Need Proof of the First Insight Working in the World Today, Look No Further Than This Blog Post by Seth Godin

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Health Officials Try to Defend the Safety of Vaccines for Children from Charges that Some Cause Autism

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Again, this is an issue that hits close to our family and one we are watching diligently.

White Trash Parenting Lessons (How NOT to Talk to Your Child)

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A sixteen-year old kid secretly records a fight with his mother who ruthlessly assaults him verbally. This is not for the feint of heart and the mother should be put on trial for child abuse--no questions asked. Lock her ass up and get her out of my society, like two second ago.

Now, tell me that the Internet doesn't have power beyond mental frivolity. The Internet might have just saved this kid's life.

Hat tip to Mensix.