This is easily one of the funniest things I have ever read in my entire life. Also a good blog site.

Humanity... why... why must you have such a high content of complete and utter fools. Hey, I'm all about entertainment. In fact, if The Day After Tomorrow and that TV movie about an earthquake in California had even one iota of being factual under any set of circumstances, then I'd be fine with Algore and his crew screaming bloody murder about the demise of humanity. I'd say they're right about the demise of humanity, but it's not going to be brought on by a 3-minute ice age or the Earth splitting in two. It's going to be brought on by our own lack of stomach and willpower as a nation. Slowly, the Islamists cut off our heads, one by one, and all we seem to be able to do is cry about a little hazing at a prison in Iraq. The media will destroy this country. I just hope their success comes after I've already gone.

Harley Davidson used to be a motorcycle brand to me. Now it just conjurs up images of jackbooted thugs who get their kicks by intimidating high school students and their families. I periodically attend football games for Cincinnati Moeller high school. They used to maintain their home field near the former College Football Hall of Fame in Mason, Ohio (now in South Bend, IN). There is a field across from the stadium, part of which recently was paved and had a Harley shop built on it. Now I know that Joe American, his wife, and their son would pulverize any asphalt they happen to encounter and drive over, even if it was just one time, in their minivan. The tactics employed by the Harley boys (I say boys based on their maturity level, not their size) were utterly ridiculous. As families would drive into the former field, one side of which was still permitted for parking, about 5 or 6 large men sat on their bikes leering at the families as they drove in, as if to say "yeah, c'mon Joe, step too close to the pavement and you're going DOWN." As the kids walked by the entrance on the provided sidewalk, which also appeared to make the neanderthals quite upset, but not upset enough to block with their iron and fury, much gazing and leering ensued. So... I had planned on owning a motorcycle one day. Harley wasn't my preference, but now it's RIGHT OUT. I'd recommend you avoid them as well. Not only are they inferior vehicles, those that ride them have some serious psychological issues. For a REAL American motorcycle, go here. -UPDATE OK... maybe I was a little rash in my assessment of ALL Harley riders being thugs. I've since met some very nice fellows who partake of Harley transportation. I stand by my comment about Aces and Eights in Mason though.

For the unwashed, a few years ago there was a GREAT cartoon on *guh* Nickelodeon called Invader Zim. Finally, after years of hoarding and protecting it from its fans, they have decided to issue dvd rights to Media Blasters. Give them money. Thanks for putting it out, Media Blasters. No thanks for making it such a painful process, Nickelodeon. Tell your Viacom masters I said hi. To buy the best cartoon of all time, go here.

Testing comments.

Two thoughts occurred to me upon reading this: The moral of the story is: if you're working in a lab with Ebola, make sure you don't get pricked with any needles, because it will KILL YOU. Then... the Russians are working on a weaponized version of EBOLA? Shew. Why is humanity so bent on destroying itself? Why?

Symantec products have been my first choice for pc security since about '97. Norton Antivirus has been, without a doubt, a great benefit to have since that time. Norton Personal Firewall has been getting progressively better since it was introduced as well. Recently, my pc started locking up whenever I would try to do anything internet related. Feeling that the computer gods had aligned against me, as they have so often in the past (it's the reason I'm in IT, to fight the good fight against them) I initially assumed it was a hardware issue. What I found out, however, was that symproxysvc.exe was eating about 99% of my processor time whenever accessing the 'net. I found surprisingly few webpages that addressed this issue, and the forums that I found information on only advised reinstalling NPF, which I decided to do. After attempting to uninstall, after disabling my network connection and closing all other apps, my system froze. Ultimately, I had to restart the system and try again, except this time NPF advised me that it required a supervisor to log in and perform this task (WTF?). So... what it boils down to is, I went through the registry deleting all NPF references. Eventually, this allowed me to uninstall, and ultimately reinstall the application. This also resolved the 99% processing time issue, thankfully. So, I still endorse Norton and Symantec products, they are the best, but for the first time they really let me down. If only they could explain this.

In my short time in the car this morning, I heard a moveon.org ad twice. Needless to say, it was dripping with absolute venom. Surprisingly, it wasn't directed at GWB, but I do believe since Rumsfeld was targeted, it could still be symptomatic of Bush Derangement Syndrome (BDS). Basically we are told that Rumsfeld is solely responsible for the Arab Grabber Great Prison Scandal of 2004, and that ALL Americans should be ashamed of him. Then it proceeded to request a phone call to Senator Mike Dewine, and listed his home phone number while indicating he would be home this week. These guys really know how to win folks over, let me tell ya. I hope this ad is playing in every state, because it can only help Bush. Coupled with the Gore outburst, in which he provided aid and comfort to the enemy, this has started out as a good week for Bush. We shall see.

So... I've been thinking... Capitalism is really an honor based system that works perfectly in theory. Since people are inherently greedy, it's good that we have some regulations in place to slow the roll of the billion dollar CEOs over the backs of the everyday workers. The labor movement in the early 20th century was quite valuable indeed, and produced many benefits for workers. During the 90s, I constantly decried the labor movement, labeling it an outdated philosophy, largely due to unions that just seemed ridiculous and inhibited the free flow of ideas and goods (ie: grocery store unions). Now, I'm not so sure. Yes, the overwhelming majority of unions are pretty much pointless other than to provide large amounts of cash to the mob bosses, but then CEOs are practically getting away with robbing people blind on their way out the door. It seems like companies aren't even pretending to care whether their workers are happy or not, and if someone burns out, they just throw another human log on the fire to keep their grubby hands warm. My business continued to lease a rather extravegant building on the Ohio river overlooking Cincinnati for several years, only because the CEO desired a river view. Meanwhile, notepads, pens, white out, paperclips, and other necessary office supplies were locked in a specially built room so that people could not get to them without filling out some forms in triplicate. I believe there needs to be some sort of collective bargaining going on here. Yep, I, as an economic conservative, feel that getting completely screwed by your employer is just plain not right. Particularly when your employer is taking advantage of a horrifically trashy job market to dock you a raise for 4 years, so they can make millions and enjoy their river view. I'm all about providing return for the investor. I say we start at the top.

Looks like the Islamists are poised for another attack within the United States. I'm quite positive they are calculating this to have the same effect as the recent Madrid bombings. Initially, I tended to concur, but my buddy has me thinking. Americans are decidedly NOT (thank God) Europeans. There is the possibility, and it's a pretty good one, that America will strike back, while supporting George W. Bush.

Wendy's really has the drive through process down. The one located near my workplace, in Erlanger, is really quite amazing. If you show up at the peak of lunchtime, there is usually a line of cars all the way around the building, but the wait is never more than 10 minutes. Way to go, guys, it appears as though someone, somewhere is still concerned about the customer. Compare this to the local McDonalds, which is a carnival of incompetence (they screwed up my order every day for a WEEK, and took about 3x as long as Wendy's to get it to me) and Burger King (I'm not even going to elaborate).

Moeller boys Ken Griffey Jr. and Barry Larkin were at it again last night. The Reds are HOT. I guess I'll enjoy it for now, and go back to despising baseball when the Reds start losing regularly again.

When the LA Lakers went down 2 games to none against the SA Spurs, my buddies at work started giving me a hard time. Well, I looked them in the eyes and said "the Lakers will not lose another game." Huh! How about that. I had intended that to mean for the rest of the playoffs, but it works just as well for that particular playoff series.

The Cincinnati Reds. Certainly an enigma this year. I find myself, given the '97 strike which I will always have clearly burned into my memory, along with the gratuitous corporate whoring going on with advertising in baseball lately, wanting to hate what was formerly my favorite sport. However, this year, the Reds, which until the afforementioned complete screwjobs on the fans by baseball had been my favorite team in all of pro sports, are poised to have their best year in quite some time. This, despite the GM stating clearly the Cincinnati fans should have low expectations, because we are a "small market" after all. So I guess, in summary, I find myself reluctantly cheering on the Reds.

I recently was fortunate enough to attend an Over The Rhine show at Dayton's Canal Street Tavern. Well, at least to see OTR. Canal Street isn't what you would refer to as a "hospitable" venue from a comfort standpoint. I had heard of them several years ago, around the same time Cincinnati had a couple of bands on the national scene, but never really pursued that interest until now. The show was absolutely terrific, and I've not given them nearly the attention they deserve. If you like modern folksy poetic type music (and this description does not do them justice), check them out.

My buddy Jason and I have, over the years, consumed countless salt and vinegar potato chips. Once P&G decided to release a Pringles version of these chips we had to start referring to them as "Pain Chips" due to the rather copious amount of pain and minor bleeding they caused, coupled with their incredible addictiveness. Finally, this phenomenon is explained.

AT&T. I hate you. The black viscous liquid pumping through your corporate veins bleeds the painful infection of... something... painful... bleakness... upon the world. So, it's story time. Once upon a time, there was this guy, we'll call him "me" for our purposes here today. I called up AT&T to cancel a bill for a phone number that I did not own and had not for 2 years (the fee was actually for reconnecting long distance service to this line, which had been disconnected a couple of months earlier by me), and the phone was answered by an Indian sounding gentleman named Sam Williams. Sam, obviously having not perfected his American accent just yet, was quite indignant that I would want to disconnect their service again, having not signed up for it in the first place. Sam actually proceeded to insult my decision, insult me personally, and continually attempt to sell some sort of long distance as I effectlessly argued exactly what I wanted done, and for what reason. After about 20 minutes of being insulted by Sam, I told him "you can get this bill off of my record and cancel the service. That is what you can do." Sam then advised me he was going to transfer me to billing so this could be done. He transferred me back to the beginning of the queue. Upon getting another analyst, this time "John," who happened to provide a much better faked American accent, took my request and immediately forwarded me to a billing analyst. Thank you John. No thank you AT&T. I hate you. I will never use your service again. You have now incorrectly billed me 5 or 6 different times, each time affecting my credit rating and wasting my valuable time. I'll curse your name to my grave.

While the blogs that have inspired me are very politically oriented, I won't be confining myself to that category, although I reserve the right to post excessively in that arena. :) That being said, here's a decidedly non political (and particularly local) issue that's been eating at me for many years. The Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) has been under the dictatorship of one Clair Muscaro for quite a while. His tenure has provided the extreme northeast corner of the state with hosting the football championships for well over a decade. These games used to be hosted in Columbus (right in the middle which was great), but OSU changed their home field from turf to natural grass, so they had to be moved. I have personally attended games in Massillon. The people are extremely friendly and courteous, and they are great hosts generally. The problem is the 4 hour drive, period. Why should Cincinnati teams have to drive 4 hours while teams from Cleveland travel 45 minutes, tops? I can understand rotating the game around the state, so as to better serve the community, but it has been hosted in the Canton/Massillon area now for too long. Cincinnati has bid on the games, as have several other areas deemed unsuitable. Compounding the problem is games are periodically held on Sunday EVENING. When I emailed the OHSAA about this several years ago, I was informed I needed to "let the kids have fun." HellooOOOOoo, I think I was 23 at the time, and even then I realized how obscene and out of touch this response was. The "kids" would be getting home at 2am on a school night. Well, the Cincinnati kids, not the Canton kids, which happened to be where the team my HS (Cincinnati Moeller) was playing were from. FYI, Canton is about 2 minutes from Massillon, which is where the game was being played I hope the new commish has a better attitude towards sharing, even though he is also from the extreme NE corner of Ohio, and many of the Cincinnati athletic directors do not know him. Sheesh. It's almost as bad as the NCAA.