Speaking is unamerican- Says Bill O'Reilly

A friend of mine tries to get me to listen to Bill on a daily basis so we can hear 'the republican talking points of the day'. He doesn't listen to ALL the republican talk radio, just Bill, as he feels that they all repeat the same boring talk all day.

Well as I was flipping channels, thinking I was gonna go to bed I saw Jeffrey Fogel, Legal Director for the Center of Constitutional Rights, on The O'Reilly Factor( Fox Cable). Bill was peeved because this LAWYER was advising protestors going to NYC for the RNC to NOT to comply with the police when questioned or detained.
Basically Bill's point was that the protestors were darn annoying and that because of THEM his family is less safe. See America is at the point where if we take a few police off watching terrorists, BAM! They'll attack loud mouth 'journalists' and their families.
I thought that the lawyer had an EXCELLENT point, which was to point out if we are THAT unsafe then the Republicans shouldn't have their convention in New York... as it's really the convention's fault. Bill didn't really like THAT idea so he went back to the idea that if HE was a citizen and the police questioned him 'who threw that rock?' he would have a DUTY to answer. Fogel, pointed out what if you had thrown the rock?
Bill didn't like that answer and again pointed out that as a CITIZEN you should do everything in your power to help the police.... Jeffrey Fogel then asked Bill what if the police asked him 'make we look around...' This was amusing as Bill pointed out he wouldn't just LET the police in as that would be an invasion of privacy. Fogel continued with the police 'asking' to 'check out his bag...' again Bill pointed out that was wrong.
I laughed at this point as that was EXACTLY what the police had done here in Boston. They stopped trains and searched bags. They 'randomly' checked bags for evidence of drugs... all because of the DNC. AND the Boston mass transit wanted to KEEP the power of random bag checks.

So Bill, to me and the lawyer, was basically saying that the welfare of HIS family is more important then some New Yorker's right to protest the president for being... Well George Walker Bush. Maybe the next Democrat President can decide that MY welfare is more important then the O'Reilly Factor and take Bill off the air.

Bang Bang They shot him dead...

In about 3 weeks the Brady Bill expires.

The Brady Bill called for a 5 day waiting period for buying guns AND banned assault weapons/ SEMI automatic guns. Now W. has said that IF a renewal passed congress that he'd sign it BUT he also knows that if he doesn't push it, it won't happen as congress is out of session. So he can have his cake( SAYS he's FOR gun responsibility) and eat it too( SAYS he's for the second amendment).

I, however, says he's for terrorism and crime. I mean I don't care if a gun is SEMI automatic or FULL automatic. I found out that there is a semi automatic AK-47, and that it was used in a 1989 tragedy that lead to the assault weapon ban.
With a semi automatic- you can point and shoot. You don't have to pull the trigger for each shot... which is something you DON'T want for hunting. I mean how many bullets do you want in thumper if you shot him for rabbit stew.

Now, I'm not against guns entirely. I used to be, and I won't have a gun in my house EVER but I have a friend. My friend likes his gun, he goes to the the range often to 'squeeze off a few'. I think it's therapeutic for him, and so won't take away his gun. I also have no problem with hunting- providing a) the hunter obeys all the laws and limits and b) eats his 'target'. I'm not for animals dying for sport. Food, yes- fun, not so much.

Our second amendment was written shortly after the Revolution. We had won the war because of ordinary citizens. The founding fathers felt there were enemies everywhere- from the Indians whose land we were stealing, to the British who might want a rematch. There was no phones, so if you were attacked- you couldn't call the police, you would have to defend your family yourself.
Also keep in mind that they didn't have automatic/ semi automatics back then.... They had "muzzle loaders". Ok- think about that name "Muzzle Loaders" what that means is you gotta load that bad boy. You can't just find it in mom's jewelry box and go blammo. First it's bigger then mom's jewelry box, second you've got to take several steps to make sure it shots correctly and if you mess ANY step up, you could either wind up with nothing or blow both your arms off.
You had one shot. The gun was BIG and BULKY.
Heck they recently struck down a law here in Ma. REQUIRING you to bring a gun to church. Yeah, if you were a man you had to bring a gun to church to help protect the women and children- this gun was struck down because... well we have police and they're better trained and are able to respond much quicker then even dreamed in the 1700's.

I think that the only reason to have a gun that shoots multiple shoots per minute is to shoot at a crowd of people. You're saying accuracy doesn't matter, what matters is the maximum amount of bullets in a maximum amount of targets in a minimum amount of time because you CAN NOT aim a semi automatic so that bullet #3 will hit within 5 inches of bullet #1.

There is no good reason to get rid of the Brady Bill unless you are a criminal, terrorists, gun manufacturer or... a politician getting money from the gun manufacturer.

Over time W. sucks more

I put in two 10 hour days this weekend because one of my co worker's father is dying. I did Saturday easy as pie, but the only reason I was willing to work ANOTHER 10 hour day was because Sunday is OVERTIME. See here in Ma. we have blue laws that give retail drones time and 1/2.

A co worker of mine mentioned in passing yesterday that lawmakers are going to be changing that. I pointed out that I was NOT surprised, as Mitt had helped found the evil empire that is STAPLES Inc. and that W. is more interested in his billionaire friends then the common man.
However wanting to know the full poop- I went on line yesterday after work and checked out Massachusetts Overtime laws. I found out that retail was one of the few places that you could earn Sunday OT and found at, which I already knew, that it was loopholed to counting towards REGULAR over time. So IF I was to work 8 on Sunday and then 33 hours Monday thru Saturday for a total of 41 hours they would count my Sunday OT as going towards my weekly Overtime pay.

This morning I heard on the Republican News Network, I mean Fox, mentioned that it was a FEDERAL change. That W. being the 'compassionate conservative' that he is, wants to cut corporate overtime for basically anyone earning over $23K. It, of course gets better, because there is no rider to have the $23K adjusted for inflation. So in a couple of more years of W. in the white house, when $23K means ALOT less- and you get a raise to $24K.... your company is gonna be able to NOT pay you overtime.
Other loop holes provided by W. Including weakening the protection of nursery school and preschool teachers, because ya know he wants to make sure that teachers are well paid as part of his 'leave every POOR child behind' and low waged 'supervisory' job like say your McMeaty Ass't Manager- as they can be re classified as EXECUTIVES.

This is just another example of W. helping the fat cats at the expense of the little guy. Who's gonna profit from this change? Staples Inc., Burger King and other large corporations who now can save a bundle on over time. Who suffers? My supervisor who's overtime could be cut( not that the manager ALLOWS her to work overtime to begin with), and the assistant manager at McMeaty's- who now that they don't HAVE to pay them overtime might be required to work 50 hour work weeks.

How can W. say with a straight face that he's FOR America?
Or more importantly how can the poor believe him as he mismanages this country to help his friends make a few more millions?

Ladies and Gentlemen- our commander and chief

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
W. said this and you can't EVER let him forget it.

He scares me....

Ok... this guy scares me more then Osama



I mean he constantly appears on my TV and tells me I should be afraid... that the terrorists will attack the U.S.A. SOON!
He usually doesn't mention a specific target- thus scaring ALL Americans and not just those 'near' targets. I mean do the people in Utah or Ohio really have to fear terrorists attacks? Maybe not but with vague warnings, they do anyway.

Just when I'm feeling good, when I feel the country is getting back on track, he appears on my TV and says "Boo!"

Spin Cycles

This 'post' contains a couple of 'rants' that are connected because they are all about the republicans spin machine...

Two weeks ago, when my computer started getting a 'make over', I saw a Daily Show episode which I *REALLY* want to talk about here. Henry Bonilla, a congressman from Texas, came to talk to Jon Stewart about the "Republican Rapid Response Team" ( would that I was making this term up). The Rapid Response Team's job was to come up to Boston during the DNC and make sure people knew the 'real facts' after the Democrats say something that is CLEARLY wrong( according to the Republicans)... Bonilla then goes onto say that he'd just like Kerry to come out and admit he's a liberal, and that Kerry's even MORE liberal then Kennedy( like that's a bad thing). Jon Stewert then asks Bonilla, in a nice manner, who says Kerry is so liberal? Where is Bonilla getting his data? Bonilla says that this information isn't gotten from ONE report but from lots, and then Stewert asks what reports? He asks Bonilla to NAME NAMES, but Bonilla refuses. Stewert finally tells us the viewers that it IS from ONE report by the National Journal and that they actually say Kerry is more to the right of Kennedy.
It was just interesting to watch as the republican seemed to just spin and spin and not answer a simple direct question- while at the same time complaining that Democrats spin WAYY too much
( a transcript of this can be found at http://torch.dailykos.com/story/2004/8/3/33853/77159)
What I found the most interesting slash disgusting was that this congressman gave Stewert these very nice cowboy boots for Jon Stewert's new baby boy. Not content with just giving Stewert a nice present... Bonilla had to write on the bottoms with white out- GOP ROCKS! I just felt if it was me, I'd've left the boots on the table or slapped him. I mean that's really crass!

And speaking of crass- I have to mention the swiftboat boat ad. This is a bunch of nam vets who SAY they served with Kerry and that he was a lousy leader who doesn't deserve his medals. What this ad tellingly neglets to mention is that they served in Nam with Kerry... The same way I serve at Staples with Mitt. They weren't on the swift boat at the same EXACT time as Kerry, either they served before/after Kerry OR they served somewhere else entirely then Kerry.
It should be mentioned that this ad is soo repugnant that McCain( also a Viet Nam Vet) said this commercial was in bad taste and called on W. to denounce the ad. W. did no such thing of course.
I will add though, that I thought was interesting that I saw this ad getting free play on Fox News, as they aired the WHOLE commercial so that they could talk about it. You just know that if they were talking about a pro Kerry ad/ anti W. ad, they wouldn't've shown ANY clips or just show the line they wanted to talk about.

Oh, and it seems that the CIA needs a spellchecker. I heard on Bill O'Riely last week that the WMDs are in IraN not IraQ. I'm so glad that's cleared up, that Saddam didn't have WMDs he just wanted them but Iran DOES have the bomb.
What truly is interesting is that W. wants to put a guy who was on the senate intel committee, the same group that gave the CIA WMD info a passing grade, in charge of the CIA. Gee I wonder if the new head of the CIA, who would owe his job to W., will agree with W. that IraN has the bomb.And of course, will we have boots on the ground in Iran by October?

Lastly (for this post) is Keyes. The republicans realized that they couldn't allow Obama to run unopposed, esp. after appearing on the national stage at the DNC. So in their wisdom they got Alan Keyes. Keyes first strike is that he doesn't live in Illinois, so they couldn't even find an African American republican in Illinois to run. Strike two is that Keyes came out VERY PUBLICLY against Hillary Clinton carpet bagging to run for NY senate, said clip has been aired all over.
Myself I think strike 3 was when I saw Keyes this weekend and he pointed out that him and Obama are DIFFERENT. That even though they both are technically black, if you go beyond their skin color you will see differences... Like the fact that Keyes' ancestors were brought over here AS SLAVES, and every day Keyes has to deal with the fact that his ancestors were slaves... as Obama, while he's an African American, he's a newbie and hasn't suffered like Keyes as Obama's father was an AFRICAN not african AMERICAN.
I'm sure Keyes, a republican looney even by the Republican Party's POV will end up fouling another few balls between now and the election, but it's just sad that they're even running him...
But what do you expect from a party where one of their biggest members( Ashcroft) lost his senate seat to a dead man

Green Sims and Sims Two

Well... because Evan asked for it, I created a Sim family with G'nort. Evan had pointed out in feedback here that I had created my Sims Green Lantern family- with Kyle, Guy, Kat and Evilyn( a mod female Power Ring) but NO G'nort.
I felt the only way to rectify this was to create ANOTHER family with G'Nort... then have him become a friend slash lover with one of the GLs and move in with them. So I created the Hollywells. I made it with 3 females- Pru, Paige and She Devil... They looked nothing like TV Hollywells, but I thought- I'd make them a magic family and get them to move to MAGIC TOWN- so I'd give them magic type names. The reason She Devil isn't Piper or Phoebe- is well she looks like a She Devil and felt her name should fit her. ;-)
So I've moved the family around as this is an easy way to get them all to have magic wands... Basically each time you move your family into a house- this magic guy shows up and gives the family a magic wand and supplies for ONE member of the family. So each time you move, you can get another wand...

So today because I had my first day off with my computer in what seems like ages. I had the Hollywells move around- get a few wands and learn a few tricks...Realizing that I would have G'nort move out at some point, during these moves I had him chat up one of the girls- that way when he moved in with the GLs, they'd have a friend( which is sorta important). After I felt I had the Halliwells meet short term goals, I had G'nort go downtown to troll for a GL... he ended up chatting up a bunch of people, including Mary Marvel, but no GLs... I had him try a new place as I was getting hungry myself and wanted him to meet a Lantern. He then hit paydirt and meets Kat. Even though I have Kat dating someone else, at this point I was glad he ran into ANY Lanterns.
So I had G'nort talk her up, wine her and dine Kat. After making her fall in love with him... because what red faced alien girl wouldn't like a 6 Ft. dog alien as a lover.G'nort tried to get fresh with her on the couch in front of the restaurant, but sadly he needed a shower. He asked her home so he could 'freshen up' but Kat wasn't having any of THAT either.
So G'nort went home to shower.... And while he didn't go home with the new love of his life- he did get her number and make her fall for him... So the next move will be hers.

So tomorrow I gotta work on the Lantern house hold as it's a house I'm trying my hand at making- so far all it has is two outhouses, and a pool in the middle of the first floor... Oh and a nice antechamber.

On the Sims 2 front. Well I have the nifty video card so that when it comes out in about a month- it'll rock my computer. HOWEVER, I'm a little overwhelmed about the modifications you can do. I mean I'm a guy and so I was amazed at what you can do to your female Sims... I'm not talking about nakkid Sims as I've yet to find them, I'm talking about MAKE UP. Yeah you can have lip stick( I think I've downloaded like 3 black lipsticks for Goth Sims), blush, eyeliner and eyeshadow... I mean what the heck? So far there are like 400+ downloadable makeup items on The Sims (2) Resource. And for guys there's facial hair- eyebrows, beards, side burns and even stubble.
This is tooo many choices for my little mind. I've already downloaded over a 100 megs ( more then a zip disk) and I've yet to find really any of the comic skins I've come to love.
Will someone be able to make a batman...? I'm not sure, I just know if they DO, well I could give him a beard and thus make it look like the Hugo Strange as Batman. I'm just not sure whether the level of detail( like aging and make up) will make it TOO hard for the skinning.

Since the beginning of typing this- I did check a Sims/Comic website... and I was able to download a power battery for the Lanterns in Sims 1, no one has created a comic skin YET for Sims 2. I have my fingers crossed- but at this point don't think I'll be able to get a Batman costume til AFTER Sims 2 hits the street. So even though I've pre ordered it, I might wait a month or so to actually play it so I can the skins I want... though goodness knows how much THAT will be if I've already downloaded 100 megss of game skins and mods.
All I know is since Marvel is worried about their 'rights' I won't be having any marvel Sims in Sims 2, which is a shame as it might be nice to have Batman's daughter go out with Spiderman...

Christian Charity

Ok... being gone for a week due to my computer I feel I need to catch up on my rants ;-) Since I want to be more coherent for a couple of others- I'll rant tonight about the RED CROSS.

I was in a car accident at age 18. I don't know if I GOT blood because of my accident( head thru side window), but I felt a need to give back. All told I gave back over a gallon of blood over the course of the next few years. I was denied a couple of times- either because I gave too soon after the accident or because I had taken advil the night before. I stopped giving blood because I read the form you had to fill out to give blood and REALLY thought about it.
The questionnaire basically asked if I was gay. See... the Red Cross doesn't accept blood from gays- as they believe that gay men have a higher chance of having AIDS. Now they don't ask the straight people( of which I am one) how many sexual partners they've had- I mean Madonna has prolly slept with more men then Dan Savage( a gay monogamous advice columnist) but she'd be allowed to give blood. I don't think that's right.
Or to put it another way- I went to google- and did gays 'red cross' to make sure I had my facts right. On shame.org( a site I might have to visit later) a HIV negative gay man mentions that he's informed that he's a bone marrow match for 13 year old girl with cancer- he goes thru the donor process and when he tells them he's gay- they decide NOT to take his marrow. Imagine that- they are denying this girl a chance for life because he's MORE likely to have AIDS. Not he HAS AIDS, or that it would be cost prohibitive to TEST HIM for AIDS... just he's 'more likely'.
Other sites I BRIEFLY looked at, say well he's more likely- that's just logic... Well ya know, poor/uneducated people are less likely to have AIDS.... If we bet the odds- only white gay business women would be allowed to give blood.
Just take a little more blood and perform an aids test on that... Which come to think about it, I thought they did that already.

I was also turned off by the form because it mentioned that if *I* was HIV positive they'd tell the government... And I don't think I liked that all that much. I mean unless I had full blown AIDS and needed medical care it ain't their business.

Lastly, as a Jew- it ANGERS me that the Red Cross allows Muslim countries to have the Red crescent... And Iran even had the Red Lion and Sun. HOWEVER they will NOT allow Israel's Magen David Adom to have a Red Star of David as their symbol. They claim that they don't want EVERY country to have their OWN symbol as that would be confusing. However to me, what's confusing, is that Christian countries get a cross and Muslims get a crescent but Israel can't get their star???

I mean come on- how can I support an organization that's against gays( several of my friends are ones) and Jews( several of my family members are ones.)

There's a hole in the bucket...

Yesterday as I walked over 2 miles with a friend, I couldn't help but think of the childhood rhyme 'There's a Hole in the bucket...' The song has Henry wanting to fix a bucket, and asking his wife Liza to help him figure out how to do it... It ends up in a logic loop as he needs water to help fix the bucket and he can't get the water without the bucket.
I started this week with a NEW video card that I wanted to put in my computer- to help with the impending Sims 2.
On Monday I had a friend show up to put in the newly purchased Vid card. It took him 10 min. We fired up the computer and lo and behold the video card needed MORE power. So he told me to get a 300 watt power plant and left. On Tuesday, before work, I walked about a mile and 1/2 to get the 300 watt power plant. He then came over on Wednesday and we found out that the new power plant wouldn't go with my compaq shell... apparently compaq had a non standard back plate. So we took the plate with us and returned the first power plant. Fortuately my friend had brought his car, so we drove to the computer store. Sadly they only had a cheap piece of crap to replace my power plant so we ended up driving for over an hour to find a place with a GOOD power plant that would fit the plate. We get lunch and then start to install the new power plant... HOWEVER before he finishes screwing everything in, My friend asks me how many watts my OLD power- turns out it was 300 watts. So we had spent the day for naught. He was tired, so I said we'd buy a new power plant AND a case on Friday.
That night I found out I could get a free case from a friend of a friend... so I tell the computer guy I would buy the power plant myself on Thursday before work and we'd put everything together on Friday.
So Thursday I return the second power plant. I ask to exchange it for a 400 watt power plant, they only have a 460 for a $100. Not wanting to spend that much money and wanting to get a better deal- I end up walking a mile and 1/2 to the store that I bought the first power plant and get a 500 watt plant for only $80. I then have to stand up at work for 6 hours on my feet....
On Friday about a 1/2 hour before we're suppose to meet my techno friend tells me he'd rather fix the computers at the game store instead of at my apartment... so I have to move my HEAVY computer several blocks then go back for the empty husk and power plant, all the while wishing he'd've told me this on Thursday so I didn't have to do it all at once.
Then we find out a) I need a new fan for the new case and B) the new case doesn't have brackets for the drivers... My friend didn't bring a car, and somehow manages to talk me into walking about 2 miles to get the brackets.... He offers an allusion about how we are explorers or some such... I point out- that being a Jew, I see it as us being lost in the desert and he KEEPS telling me the promised land is over the NEXT dune.
We buy the brackets- and I tell him if they don't work, we're putting everything back in the old case... and if I have to use the old video card, so be it.
Turns out the brackets aren't perfect BUT knowing I'm not throwing any more money/ time at the problem... he MAKES it work.

So:
The video card wanted a new power plant
the power plant wanted a new case
the case wanted new brackets
and my bank account is in the red a $100 MORE then the original cost of the video card. NEXT time I just wait a few more months til I can save/beg/steal enough money for a whole new computer.