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1…. Don’t plan on working through a weekend when there is a blogmeet

2…. Take plenty of Aspirin and Alka Seltzer

3…. Bathroom floors are just as uncomfortable now as they were 20 years ago.

4…. Monkeys might REALLY fly

5…. Alligators left in the river DON’T stay long…

6…. Watch out for flying half-rubbers and duck when V-Man throws…You might get a fat lip

7…. Take an extra two days off. One before and one after…

8…. Don’t drink for 14 hours straight

9…. Most definitely don’t drink Chocolate Vodka on top of Chatham Artillery Punch and Sam Adams Oktoberfest.

10…. V-Man looks great in a Dress. No Photoshopping needed.

11…. Don’t sit right next to the stage and don’t plan on getting your food too fast.

12…. Bring TWO sheep next year

13…. And last but not least, get a hotel room and party in someone ELSE’S cabin. If I know I have to walk back I tend to drink less 🙂

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The so-called anniversary of Baby Jessica’s rescue was Tuesday and I had meant to post something in passing about it but got busy doing something else.

On October 16th 1987 I was actually on the road out to Los Angeles when this was on the news. I was pretty young at the time and although it really didn’t effect me as much as it did quite a few people around the country it touched me as well and is one of those things that stick in my head from growing up, such as the Regattas during the Bicentennial, the first Space Shuttle Launch and various other items that I have filed away in that black hole of my head.

Most of the news sites have had something posted this week, the 20th anniversary of her falling down the well and being rescued. It was such a huge deal back then.

The big thing I keep hearing about is the donations that were sent to her family during the time and how it was saved for her in a trust fund (good choice by her parents there) and how she gets it when she’s 25. My question is why is this news? I can see the date being important in people’s minds because we all like to reminisce about things both good and bad but I could really give a rat’s ass what she does with the money. Good for her is all I say.

Remember the artist in Denmark that drew Mohammed that received death threats from all over the world and prompted some publications to pull it and apologize? Swedish artist Lars Vilks has done basically the same thing but is taking a stand for his artistic expression, but he’s making sure to look under his car for bombs now since Al Qaeda has put a $100,000 price on his head and offered an extra $50,000 for anyone that murders him by slitting his throat. That’s one high-priced cartoon. His website is at http://www.vilks.net. Unfortunately it’s all in Swedish and I haven’t bothered to run it through babelfish yet so am getting most of this secondhand. He does have some depictions of Mohammed over there as well as other religious figures if you are interested in checking them out.

Vilks has been a controversial artist in Sweden for more than thirty years and his crude sketched caricature of Mohammed as a dog was a calculated move and he wanted to get a reaction. That he has certainly gotten. He receives constant death threats, and although he still works at home during the day he has to go to a safe house at night. Police have asked him to abandon his home completely to protect him from people such as the Swedish woman known as Amatullah who says that she hopes she can make good on the Al Qaeda threat and slaughter Vilks like a lamb. She has apparently already been fined for making death threats and claims that she will never stop taunting him.

I guess Lars Vilks should be glad he’s not living in Bangladesh where they have detained a cartoonist for offending Islam by drawing a caricature of Mohammed as a cat. I have to tell you, my cat is extremely offended and thinks that his eyes should be clawed out for offending catkind everywhere.

You can see the drawing he did of Mohammed’s head on a dog’s body. Since Muslim’s view dogs as being unclean I can see why they might be slightly aghast. Big hairy deal. If you don’t like it, don’t look at it. There are plenty of offensive things that we see every day, from stuff like the infamous Piss Christ to caricatures of the Pope along with plenty of political commentary.

Stuff like that get’s everyone’s panties in a twist and there is plenty of banter thrown around but the only time I ever hear of hundreds and thousands of death threats are when Muslims are involved, which just goes to show how truly primitive and barbaric the mainstream religion is. If it were just far removed wings of the religion we wouldn’t see such impact but since the rest of Islam accepts their control that makes them the mainstream.

What I find really interesting is that most of us laugh and think just as I have said “God, what barbarians” and we go about our daily business thinking we are above those assholes. If that were the case then why under Chapter 272 of it’s general laws is section 36 “Whoever wilfully blasphemes the holy name of God by denying, cursing or contumeliously reproaching God, his creation, government or final judging of the world, or by cursing or contumeliously reproaching Jesus Christ or the Holy Ghost, or by cursing or contumeliously reproaching or exposing to contempt and ridicule, the holy word of God contained in the holy scriptures shall be punished by imprisonment in jail for not more than one year or by a fine of not more than three hundred dollars, and may also be bound to good behavior.” Perhaps Muslims aren’t the only intolerant ones…

This Weeks Hero Was Suggested By Beth

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your blog, you can go here.

Although I have been with the same company for almost 21 years I have had several other jobs over the years. Grocery clerk, Landscaping construction, lawn maintenance, Photographer’s assistant, ISP tech support, IT Desktop support, carpet layer and roofer are just a few. I have also worked at quite a few different restaurants, which makes sense considering that I run them for a living.

I spent a couple of months back in the early nineties working in a Mexican/Latin joint. That was OK. The food was good and I already knew the owners. They are a couple of really nice guys from Puerto Rico and have done very well for themselves here.

Anyway, one of the owners grew his own vegetables for the restaurant, at least the spices and fresh peppers. One day he brought in some Jabeneros and one of them bet me that I could not eat the entire thing without spitting it out. Of course when I went home from work that day my wallet was $10 heavier (which was a big deal at that time) and I was shitting fire for two days after that. Holy crap. They don’t call it the hottest pepper in the world for nothing.

Did you ever have the nasty runny shits that make you race to the toilet and almost before you get properly seated and a smoke lit it comes spewing out of your anal sphincter to splash the toilet water so violently as to get your entire backside wet?

Me either, just wondering.

From yesterday’s Downsizer Dispatch:

So many bills in so little time. Last week, the
Senate passed  14 bills amounting to 1482 pages. The House passed 15 bills
totaling 50 pages. How does this happen?

Each member of Congress sits on a few committees, (where they are often
susceptible to lobbyist influence.) Even if they develop some expertise in a
few areas, they haven’t read, and know very little about, most of the bills
their party leaders ask them to pass. Many of these bills delegate more money
and authority to the President and administrative agencies. The process has its
own inertia, and government grows and grows. It doesn’t matter what the people
want, and the long-term consequences for the nation are rarely considered. This
is why we need the Read
the Bills Act.

But can we pass the Read the Bills Act?

We believe so, because it is clear the tide is turning in our country. The
political culture is changing. Signs of popular discontent are rising all
around us. Polls show record-low approval ratings for Congress, and near-record
lows for the President.  A supposedly “fringe” Presidential
candidate, Ron Paul, dominates the Internet and shocked the Establishment by
raising $5.1 million over the past three months. His message of downsizing the
federal government is resonating with more and more people. Agree or disagree
with Paul, his success is a stinging rebuke to the status quo.

It is clear that people want change, and we can achieve it.

Although we were taught in school that we have a Constitutional system of
checks and balances between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches,
the only check that matters is the people. History shows that direct action
from the people does work. Direct action does lead to change. Popular
resistance can undo any government program. For instance, popular resistance
brought Prohibition to an end. The draft was ended during the Nixon
Administration because of popular backlash, and hasn’t returned for fear of the
same.

But we are not  even asking for popular resistance. Instead, we are asking
for popular persistence. Contact Congress. Tell Congress what must be
done. Ask your friends to do the same, and to tell their friends. And then, do
it all over again. And again. As the pressure mounts, Congress can not afford
to ignore us. Indeed, they will begin to fear us. And so we ask you to tell your Representative and
Senators to introduce and pass the Read the Bills Act.

We also ask you to spread the word. Click the “Tell a Friend” button
on the campaign page.

And add your blog or website to the Read the Bills Act Coalition. Details are
found here.

This week, we welcome four new members to the Coalition:

mccoolportraits
Dooglio.net
The Pro’se Plaintiffs &
Litigants Association
NextRevolution

Finally, a list of the bills Congress passed last week is found at the bottom
of the
blog version of this Dispatch.

We invite you to visit our blog regularly and post your comments. Check it out here.

That’s pretty much as plain as I can put it. I suppose it could have been worse. I knew it was going to be an extremely long day and since all of my managers are in place the next three days I came in a bit late. I had to run to Carrollton to buy a toner for one of the printers and stopped to see a friend of mine at my old store. It was her last day there. It will be sad to see her go but she’s got a great job working for the Red Cross and I am happy for her.

It was meeting day so I spent most of the day gathering paperwork and putting it together and then sat at the meeting until around five this evening. Pretty uneventful actually. One of my cooks didn’t show up tonight, so I had to find someone else. There goes overtime $ down the drain, the asshat.