Why did God give us free will?

News from Agape Press

...if we've got people running around trying to restrict it?

If a person chooses to go against the teachings of Jesus, it's their own responsibility. Where does this moral agenda end? Banning porn stores? Banning all Internet porn via national legislation? Clothing codes on the beach (i.e., no exposed midriffs/no bikinis, etc)? That last part sounds a lot like a law passed in Iran recently to reward the garment industry in making traditional Islamic clothing and making a legal statement about what people should wear. Also, in the Bible it talks about what women should wear. I can't quote chapter and verse, but it's in the New Testament. When I find it, I'll let you know.

The point is, where do we draw the line here? I've read my share of porn. There are objectification issues with it which give me reservations about it (i.e., how many of the women are doing it because they want to or because they need the money), and I don't support repression of any kind. But where does it stop? Where to we stop certain people from butting into others' personal lives?

Good, better, best.

Vermont signs ambitious health-insurance law |Reuters.com

Good: "Massachusetts' plan has also been touted as a possible national model by requiring all residents to obtain health insurance by July 1, 2007, or face possible tax penalties."

Better: "A new subsidized health-care plan called Catamount Health will be offered by insurance companies and paid for in part with a hike in the state's cigarette tax and a fee on employers who do not offer health insurance to their workers."

Best: Putting the responsibility for the rise in health-care costs on the insurance companies and the medical industry. I haven't seen anyone discuss that yet. Too much ve$ted intere$t in keeping the money in in$urance, medical admini$tration and pharmaceutical$, I $uppo$e...

The problem with Massachusetts' plan is that they want to essentially FINE people $1000 if they don't get medical insurance...and yet (in my case) the cost of health insurance for my son is over $380 a month or over $4500 a year. I'll take the $1000 fine and use the remaining $3500 for my son, thank you. (PS: in Maine, to get full medical coverage, on your own, is over $1000 a month...that's over $12,000 a year!)

The problem with Vermont's plan is that it can potentially put too much financial burden on SMALL companies that cannot afford to give its employees health care.

The problem with MY plan is...well, there IS no problem with it. Except it means less profits for insurance companies, hospital administrators, and the pharmaceutical companies...which CAN lead to less money for R&D (but tell that to the CEOs with their 10,000 square foot mansions, 100 foot yachts and fleets of Lexuses...Lexus's...Lexi...whatever). God forbid. Malpractice insurance (from frivolous lawsuits) doesn't help any, either; and jacks up the price for just getting a doctor, let alone hospital care.

Also, the high (and ever-increasing) cost of health care is going to put a huge tax burden on working citizens--including the very wealthy--when baby boomers are set to retire around the end of this decade. So it is in the best interests of even the fat cats in the medical industry to curtail the cost of health care before even they end up suffering.

In the famous words of Farkers everywhere...

USATODAY.com - Retiree benefits grow into 'monster'

...EVERYBODY PANIC!

Right now, you technically owe the government $510,678 to cover the cost of people due to retire and collect benefits in 2008 (Medicare benefits in 2011).

2008 is less than 2 years away, folks. And that $510k bill is what the government needs from each person NOW!

Is it any wonder our kids are lagging behind in education?

Cavs want tax break

The [Cavaliers] wants to borrow money from the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority and then use some of the taxes it will pay on the sports complex -- which normally go to schools and government -- to repay the loans.

Asked if that means the Cavs are in line for a tax break, Independence Mayor Fred Ramos said: "They may be, yes."

Translation: Mayor Fred Ramos said: "I don't give a shit about our kid's education. Sports is much more important."

Okay, I have no problem with sex, but...

Cannes sex films question role of porn, Internet|Reuters.com

In one particularly provocative scene in his film, three gay men engage in a sex session while singing "The Star-Spangled Banner".

Three words: what the fuck??? Is that supposed to be art? This is one of the more asinine things I've read in a while. What's the message this guy's trying to convey? Or is this just in here for the shock value?

I'm betting on the latter.

FINALLY! News about Britney that's worth printing!

Moms come forward, say give Britney a break - Celebrity News - MSNBC.com

Didn't I say this already?

My favorite part was this:

Some also noted that there's a silver lining to the various compromising photos of Spears: at least they show she's WITH the baby.

"Look, there are probably a number of celebrities who would have someone else caring for their baby while they went gallivanting around doing whatever," Thaler says. "So maybe we should give her credit for wanting to be with him so much."

Any lack of judgment, in my opinion, can be mitigated if the mother is trying to do things in the best interest of the child; and especially if the mother appears to genuinely CARE about the baby. The infant in her lap, and then later in a carseat facing the wrong way? Those are mishaps caused by her not being properly informed. She should simply go to the fire department and get help installing the carseat properly (they do that for free--I know). Those are the ONLY things I've seen her "do wrong."

So, for crying out loud, give Britney a break. Let's get back to some REAL news, like: what are we going to do about Iran, how are we going to get a handle on the pending energy crisis, and why in hell did Congress pass a tax-break law that primarily benefits those making over $100,000 a year? THAT'S news.

How to stop these scams...

FORTUNE: Online scams create "Yahoo! millionaires" - May 29, 2006

It's insanely simple, it makes you wonder why nobody has done it yet.

Configure all routers to deny IP addresses coming from Nigeria. Period. eBay can do it, Yahoo! can do it, ANYBODY can do it. It's a simple matter of creating a deny rule on a firewall or router. If you know that a certain block of addresses come from Nigeria, you can stop the vast majority of scamming from this country with one or two commands.

ONE OR TWO COMMANDS!

I WANT TO BELIEVE

The Four Winds - Bringing TRUTH to the Four Winds of Earth-Shan

It doesn't take a new-age crackpot to come up with the fact that this world is f*cked up. Just recently, a Democrat was allegedly caught taking a $100,000 "bribe." Many people think President Bush is a screw-up, and more think it each day. Iran is...well, Iran is just scary. Very few people trust the government, and new lies and hidden agendas get revealed each day.

So along comes an article like this from "people" purporting to be extrasolar beings (extraterrestrials, whatever) who wish to help us.

Wouldn't that be nice?

Odds are, that someone just sat at home and had this "revelation" and decided to write it down, stating it came from an "anonymous galactic source."

But what if...

Well, we can dream, can't we? I've stated that only three things could precipitate real and positive change in human history...but in case you haven't read it, I'll spell them out again:

1. A major catastrophe causes the collapse of all major governments.
2. A select group of people leave this planet to start a brand-new civilization, learning from the mistakes that make up our history so far.
3. Jesus Returns.

This article asks us to choose whether we want these people to show themselves. It sounds a lot like item #3...just without Jesus.

Well, at any rate, my kid wants me, so I'm ending this post here. As a parting thought, I think the title for this post is very accurate. I do want to believe that there is hope for us.

But there's days when I cannot see it.

"sanctioned prayer" versus the right to freedom of religion

WKYT 27 NEWSFIRST & WYMT Mountain News - Judge Blocks Prayer at High School Graduation

This story warms my heart. The judge did rule correctly in this case: that the school should NOT have a sanctioned prayer as part of the graduating ceremony. This does violate a separation between government and religion, the key word being "sanctioned." However, that does NOT prohibit the 200 or so graduating seniors from doing a prayer on their own. Anyone who thinks that prayer should be outright banned from schools needs to re-examine the Constitution. Only a SANCTIONING of religion by a state institution is banned by the Constitution. A person can pray if they want to, whenever and wherever they want to. THAT is the definition of "freedom of religion."

"The Force" is making my brain hurt.

Jedi Knight Certificate

So, does that mean Jesus is Yoda? And Judas Iscariot is Anakin Skywalker?? This should make a re-read of the Bible quite an interesting challenge.

Remember that article about the colored badges?

Iran pushes Islamic dress code for women - Mideast/N. Africa - MSNBC.com

A copy of the draft law obtained by The Associated Press made no mention of religious minorities or any requirement of special attire for them, and the [Canadian National] Post later posted an article on its Web site backing off the report.

So I guess that settles that.

Torture camps? (POST #350!! Woo! Yay!)

There's been a lot of stink in the press about CIA torture prisons in Europe, and VP Cheney's penchant for torture in general. They all say it's for the defense of this country; to root out terrorists. But human rights activists are solidly against it.

That having been said, on Nation States, they have a kind of role-play for government afficionados (or whatever). Here's one of the scenarios it suggests to its players

The Issue:
Due to the recent capture of a foreign terrorist in First Xanadu, high-level military officials want the government to authorize torture to extract information about other terrorist activities.

The Debate:
"Torture is the only way that we can get these idiots to tell us anything," says General Billy Longbottom of First Xanadu's special forces division. "After all, violence is the only shared language we have with these scum."

"Are you kidding?" states political activist Charles Li. "Torture never works. If anything, it should be outlawed. What do we want to become, genocidal maniacs?

"There's nothing wrong with torture, but we can't make it too obvious," says Secretary of Defense Randy Clinton. "How about we simply ask them nicely, and then, if they don't tell us, we kill them? That's better just from the intimidation."

Which would you choose? If you pick option 1, you're siding with the CIA and Dick Cheney; and you're against the rights activists. If you pick option 2, it's flip-flopped. And if you pick option 3, you're probably against both the government (maybe) AND the activists. Is there an option 4? What else can we be doing to extract information from people who KNOW certain things that are harmful to our way of life?

Why I could only readily find this on Fark.com, I don't know.

United Press International - Intl. Intelligence - Iran may force badges on Jews, Christians

This is something that should be in BIG, BOLD LETTERS on the MSNBC.com splash page. This isn't a joke! If anyone else were to see the following in print: "...force badges on Jews..." they'd be thinking they were reading a newspaper from the 1930's.

This is unacceptable! Iranian leadership wants to mark Jews and Christians...they're pursuing nuclear technology...and Russia and China don't want to do ANYTHING about it (China has a major vested interest in Iranian oil, by the way). The sad thing about this law the Iranian parliament passed--to badge non-Muslims--is based off of sharia law. Sharia law is traditional Muslim law. This is what the fundamentalist Muslims want when they plot the destruction of the US.

Fundamentalist Muslims ARE THE NEXT NAZIS. Period. And it would seem Ahmadinejan is the next Hitler.

Only a brain-dead idiot in denial could not see the disturbing and palpable parallel. I think the time is nigh for us to "wipe Iran off the map," before it's too late for the rest of us.

UPDATE: On cnn.com, you won't find a story about this asinine Iranian law, but you WILL find this VERY IMPORTANT bit of information that could very well rewrite history: http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Music/05/19/spears.ap/index.html No red-blooded American cannot live without hearing how Britney Spears stumbled while carrying her kid.

How the hell can anyone by any stretch of the imagination call this 'news' and still keep a straight face??? I'm so pissed right now I could spit. Puh-tooey!

PS: This is the other place I've been able to find this story: Canada.com. This isn't the Sun or National Enquirer or some cheesy tabloid site claiming aliens are mind-controlling President Bush (although that would make for an interesting argument), but CANADA.COM. Not CBSNEWS.com, nor ABCNEWS.com, CNN.com, or MSNBC.com. You can't find it ANYWHERE on a US news site (right now).

Maybe it has something to do with this: http://www.940news.com/locale.php?news=2512 Apparently, this isn't a NEW law as is being told by canada.com and UPI; but a 2-year old law to prevent believing Muslims from becoming "unclean" from shaking hands with an "infidel." This link (from canada.com again) states this color-coding stems from a wider law dealing with standardizing Islamic garments worn in Iran.

So, is this all true? canada.com acknowledges a law being drafted in 2004 but blocked by the Majlis. Both canada.com articles, plus the UPI article, say this NEW law was passed Monday. A person left a comment on canada.com, saying he called his relatives in Iran about this, and his relatives said they heard nothing about this new law.

That's not surprising. How many laws get passed in the US that we "average Joes" know nothing about?"

Here's another site that has this news story. But I've noticed that not one word is mentioned about this law at Iran Daily or Al-Jazeera. Hmm.

BOYCOTT PROGRESSIVE

Okay, I lied. I'm posting again.

After discovering a $90 increase to my car insurance premium, I gave Progressive a call. Long story short, I was getting a discount for being a single parent with child. However, I no longer qualify (and, in fact, they charged me retroactively to the start date of the policy) for this discount because I was never married.

Needless to say, I'm letting my lawyer, my state senator and the press know about this one. This smacks of discrimination. And I'm sure I'll have the backing of a lot of the single moms (and dads) out there, too.

Slap 'em back.

ABC News: 'Happy Slapping' Spreads in London

I want to see a news story of one of these 'happy slappers' getting the crap beat out of them. That would make me happy.

I think I'm starting to burn out from reading about all these idiots; so I'm considering taking a break from it, and taking a break from "Chartreuse." It's not like anyone reads this, anyway...

Some women just can't understand normal thinking.

6abc.com: Wife Accused in Attack

Don't get me wrong: if the husband WAS cheating on his wife...well, he shouldn't have been doing it. IF he was doing it. Did she ask him, though? Did she ever confront him about it? Or did she just up and crush his nuts in some kind of paranoid fit? The news article, of course, won't say.



Those are called STEPS, guys. PS: check out the FILENAME of the image. I got it right from the news site.

How ironic

WorldNetDaily: MySpace.com hosts wannabe terrorists

Some of these youth, such as 17-year old "Yaqub," seem to simply echo Islamist propaganda, Mansfield says.

Yaqub, from Plainfield, N.J., proclaims "Denmark Is messin with the wrong people!!"

Some, such as 17-year old Aaron Moore of West Haven, Conn., seem to have developed profound anti-American feelings:


white ppl (or americans) killed most of the native Americans they caused the trail of tears (deals with the native americans, mostly of the Cherokee nation) then they continue pushing them back on the western front …
americans say "all muslims are saveges, or animal beasts" (as they did to the native americans, [see a cycle?]) or the americans also say "ohh, arabs and muslims are almost humans".

Others, such as 19-year old "Islamakazi," are more explicit, posting a countdown until what he describes as "Iran war (world war 3)."

Along with the "countdown clock" are a variety of other images glorifying jihadi and terrorist leaders, including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Isn't it lovely that we can live in a country where you can denigrate the very same country that gives you the ability to say the stupid things you say? If it weren't for the First Amendment, these sophomoric, self-proclaimed "jihadists" wouldn't be able to tout their philosophy of hate. And then what would they do?

BOYCOTT!

DenverPost.com - Complexities in "sampler" times

Boycott Russel Stover's god-awful candies! Show these kids some support.

Britney and her baby seat

Oops, yet again! Britney's new baby gaffe - Celebrity News - MSNBC.com: "What do you think about Britney's latest gaffe?"

Four words: WHO GIVES A FUCK?

Aside from the fact that it's Britney, *anybody* not properly installing an infant seat simply needs to learn to do it right. It's stupid to try to point out someone else's "stupidity" because they're famous. There's regular folk out there who don't even USE baby seats. Why not put pictures of them on the internet and poke fun at them?

Paparazzi need to get a life. A real one, that is. Why can't the news simply have ... news?

Survey SAYS!...

Dating Statistics: Top Dating Tips Reader Poll Statistics 2004

Told you I'd find more information! Check it out!

Where is the best place to meet new people ?

1.) Bar 18%
2.) Club 11%
3.) Beach 4%
4.) Church 2%
5.) Social club 4%
6.) Mall 4%
7.) Internet 18%
8.) Work 22%
9.) Sport 7%
10.) Other 9%

You can almost hear Richard Dawson's voice...

The leaders are "Work," "Internet," and "Bar." I'm not sure if they mean "Wooden Club," "Golf Club," "4H Club" or what when they say "Club 11%," but there you go. I'd like to know what "Other 9%" is...

What we should do about *this* one...

WSBTV.com - News - Student Charged For Making Fun Of Teacher

I think we should go find this kid's Myspace.com page...then see if (from the web page) there's some way to contact this Muzzillo turd. Then, send message after message to Muzzillo telling him what an idiot he is.

I'm sick and tired of this oversensitive crap, and I think oversensitive people need to be rounded up and given a collective kick in the crotch. What a bunch of fucktards! You NEVER heard of this kind of shit in the 70's or 80's. Why have we Americans turned into such a collection of crybabies? If ANYONE ever took me to court because I made fun of them, I'd give them a REAL reason to put me on trial.

Fuckers.

It's official, folks...

The Blotter

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU!

And what's even scarier...PEOPLE LOVE IT!

A recent poll suggested that about 2/3rds of Americans are OK with what the government is doing with phone records (maintaining a database of ALL phone numbers called in an attemt to track down terrorists). And, after reading the comments on the linked website...

The first couple are "freedom of the press" comments. But after that, people start SLAMMING ABC. Quote: "'Bout time you guys are roped in." This is just a sample.

Holy Newspeak Classes, Batman!

One person went so far to say, "who knows how many serviceman have died because of your 'right to know.'" How is the "leaking" of information of TORTURE CAMPS in Europe causing our soldiers in Iraq to die?

I'm sorry, but I'm calling a Grade A, Ben Franklin-esque "Shenanigans" on that one.

The sad bit of all this is...tracing calls using that database could very well STOP the next big terrorist attack. Is this another example of sacrificing freedoms for security?

How are we even able to breed?

78,348 Listings in Maine

I made a note of this last night and didn't get around to it today, but what the hey.

Okay. On Adult Friend Finder (online dating service), there are over 78,000 people (or couples, groups, etc) looking for sex (or just dating). However, almost HALF of those profiles are of men looking for women. 36,478, to be exact. How many women are looking for men?

3,464. 1 women to 11 men??? Something seems strangely off about that. Maybe it's just Maine. Yeah. That's it. I'll browse ALL profiles in the United States and see what we get.

Men looking for women: 7,427,476.
Women looking for men: 634,025.

????? <== me, confused

That's almost 1 woman to TWELVE men! Twelve angry men, I'll bet. Sounds like a jury. Ahem, anyway...

Last time I checked, the number of men in the United States was about proportionate to the number of women (49 to 51% if I remember correctly). So how is it that on this dating site, there are 11 men essentially vying for 1 woman? Did the laws of statistics suddenly go crazy overnight? Or, could it be that women DO NOT look for mates on online dating services?

Hmm.

I looked at my Yahoo! Personals account. I tried looking at a large area for demographics, but they cap search results to 1000. So I looked for women looking for men, within 25 miles of where I live. I received 46 matches. Now, I'm going to look for men looking for women, within 25 miles. I get...

57!

46 to 57 isn't too out of whack, I suppose. I'd like to see a better representation, though.

Mate1.com gives me these results (18-40 in Maine only)

Women seeking men: 421
Men seeking women: 428

Much closer to normal.

Okay, after that extensive bit of research, I can clearly state that it's just Adult Friend Finders that is out of whack. Lesson: if you're a man looking for a woman, DO NOT USE AFF...unless you want to compete with 10-11 other men.

I'll keep everyone posted on what else I discover.

UPDATE: I just looked on match.com. For the state of Maine (ok, well, 100 miles of where I live) between ages 18 and 40:

Women seeking men: 328
Men seeking women: 411

It still seems that men are more likely to use online services than women. Why is this, I wonder? For us desperate (uh, no, I mean, for THOSE desparate) men looking for dates, where do we (I mean, THEY) go to find quality women? Or women in general? Are bars still the way to go? I cannot picture myself walking up to some woman in a bar, dressed in a leisure suit (not the woman!), and saying, "Hey, baby, what's your sign?"

BARF!

No, no...that can't be it. I've heard of people meeting the loves of their lives in church.

"Wanna go out with me?"

"Sure!"

"Can I get an AMEN!?"

That seems kind of tacky. Church is for worship, not dating. Hmm. Think... think, think, think... I'll have to start a poll, or see if Ask.com has an answer. This is definitely one of those burning questions!!!

UPDATE 2: Mate1.com, which has about 400 women seeking men, costs almost $50 a month! Holy Cow! Match.com, which has about the same number of women looking for men, but within a smaller area (that means all the women are CLOSER to me), costs anywhere from $35 down to $16 a month (if you get their super-special package deal, over multiple months). Based on that, it would be more economical to use Match.com over Mate1.com. Fifty bucks!? What a joke. I e-mailed their support department pretty much stating this.

What to do

7Online.com: New York City and Tri-State News from WABC-TV

"Tyranny of the majority" comes to mind. Not that it will EVER happen, but what if all these people getting these tickets DID NOT pay them? What if restaurant owners and patrons banded together to put an end to this kind of bad police behavior? What if...

Seems crazy

Innocent Texas Citizen Targeted With Deadly Electronic Weapons

Every time I see one of these doom-and-gloom stories (X-Files(tm) style), I can't help but wonder. You never see stuff like this in mainstream news releases (i.e. MSNBC, CNN, etc); ironically, those furthering these conspiracy theories will point to this as justification that their conspiracies MUST be true because of how hard the government is trying to hush it up. So, if all the big media agencies suddenly came out and said that the government is (in this example) trying to use cell phones for mind control and assassination, that it must be UNTRUE because the government is no longer covering it up??

Or am I missing something here? Must be my cellphone... (Yet, truth is often stranger than fiction)

For example:

[The New World Order Agenda] means absolutely nothing because most people remain in the dark, having fallen victim to the powerful propaganda machine sweeping through the world like an out of control freight train.

THAT'S WHY WE DON'T KNOW ABOUT IT! IT'S THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE! Circular logic gives me a headache. Or is it the microwave...

Why sometimes people use hate tactics

Crusading veggies steamroll university into web censorship | The Register

I read the following...

Charlton says the suspension of IT services is a big blow to Lloyd, who pursued his interest in the field on a low income, and a “malicious, frivolous” attack should have been resisted by authorities. He added that it is an “ominous” sign that people with “hurt feelings” can bring about a crisis meeting in the upper echelons of management.

He also pointed out that the action sets a worrying precedent for the institution; people can take offence at anything, so the regulations offer no protection to anything on the site.

...and the first thought I had was to try to come up with something so offending it would make the devil blush.

Why?

Because I, like a lot of people (the majority, I'm sure), am sick and tired of having our rights trampled on by a whiny minority that doesn't like to get its feelings hurt.

Tough cheese.

In this instance, the person who suffered at the wrath of the veggie mongers was solely trying to exercise 'teh funnay.' Only a brain-dead herbivore could've assumed that any statement ending in "this goes to prove amongst other things that men really will do ANYTHING for sex" would think that this guy wasn't doing his article for comedic and/or ironic purposes.

And people wonder why we need high-blood pressure and anti-anxiety medications. These morons are too uptight about ... well, everything. And so, "natural selection" will ensure these hypersensitive people die from heart attacks and/or other stress-related illnesses.

All because someone couldn't take a joke.

This is one reason why people end up using "hate tactics," I'm sure. They KNOW they can get a rise out of these sensitive types, and they get a big thrill out of watching (or imagining) their faces contort into expressions resembling someone trying to take a shit. These sensitive types,when they were kids, apparently never listened to their elders when they said to IGNORE the bullies. But...if they want to lead a stress-filled life, more power to them.

Now, why can't ALL street gangs be like this?

Scotsman.com News - German 'Robin Hoods' give poor a taste of the high life

You've got mail!

http://www.cfr.org/content/publications/attachments/Ahmadinejad%20letter.pdf

There is plenty of "doom and gloom" talk with regards to Iran; and how much of a nutjob their president appears to be. Strangely enough, a lot of what I've (so far) read of Ahmadinejad's letter makes a lot of sense. However, here in this letter, with his very words, he starts to contradict himself. For example:

"Why is it that any technological and scientific achievement reached in the Middle East regions is translated into and portrayed as a threat to the Zionist regime? Is not scientific R&D one of the basic rights of nations."

Why is it portrayed as a threat? Because you have explicitly stated that Israel should be wiped off the map. Hence, why NOT JUST the United States but the vast majority of industrialized nations against Iran's pursuit of nuclear technology?

Period.

Ahmadinejad mentions something rather disturbing later on...it has to do with 9/11.

"Reportedly your government employs extensive security, protection and intelligence systems--and even hints its opponents abroad. September eleven was not a simple operation. Could it be planned and executed without coordination with intelligence and security services--or their extensive infiltration?"

One way this can be interpreted: that al Qaeda has managed to infiltrate the FBI, CIA, etc. This makes some sense. My father (who worked on the border) reported that intelligence agencies in Canada tried to warn the FBI of an imminent attack back before 9/11, but the FBI ignored it. What if al Qaeda has agents in our government?

Holy crap!

Take a look at the faces of some of the 19 hijackers--would you assume these people could EVER be semitic in origin, let alone terrorists? A couple of them look like they could've been Sears catalog models or something. Others do look like they could be Arabic in origin (yes, this is profiling) and MAYBE terrorists...but then there are also terrorists who are not affiliated with al Qaeda at all (i.e.: Oklahoma City).

The other way this can be interpreted is that President Bush pulled a Pearl Harbor. Some theorize that the US knew Japan was planning to attack Pearl Harbor, and let them do so, so that the US could enter the war in the Pacific theater (justification). What if the same can be said for 9/11?

The rest of Ahmadinejad's letter could be pretty much his own take on what the media has been stating for quite some time now: why are we in Iraq, who lied about WMDs in Iraq, etc. And the issue of Israel is also discussed, as well as a lot of religious rhetoric (a lot valid; other parts less valid, depending on what you believe I suppose).

MSNBC reported that an Iranian diplomat said this could be a means to open a valuable dialogue...but Secretary of State Rice, for all intents and purposes, dismissed it.

Finally: "History tells us that repressive and cruel governments do not survive." What this means is this: the proof is in the pudding. If it is the US that is in the wrong, it will be known in time (as it was known with Iraq's WMDs). If, on the other hand, Iran is trying to pull the wool over the global community's eyes...well, I know the French have an itchy trigger finger, poised over their Big Red Button.

Nation Building (sort of)

Google Groups: Building New Bensalem

This is a Google Group I started. Check it out! And if you don't, I'll just keep bumping this post until you do. And I'll tell your mom on you. Neener neener boo boo.

>:-D

Moussaoui defiant at sentencing - U.S. Security - MSNBC.com

Ha ha ha ha ha ha!! Loooooooseeerrrrrr!!!

This makes me so happy, twofold. One, that Moose-Owie will NOT be "made a martyr," and two, the death penalty won't be used (in general). As you are all probably aware, I'm against the death penalty. And in this case, it is soooo sweet irony that Mr. Buttlick here won't get what he's been looking for.

I love America!

What's so funny is that it's true!

Girlspeak to English Dictionary

Yes. All of this is true. Perhaps this is part of the reason why I've failed in all my past relationships: I expect people to say what they mean and mean what they say. I hate double-talk. And yet, women seem to do this ALL THE TIME! I defy any woman out there to tell me they DON'T use this "girlspeak." I'm yet to find one that doesn't.

And it's frustrating.

Diss A. Pointment runs rampant through the town, stark naked!

Illegal immigrants demonstrate economic clout - U.S. Business - MSNBC.com

I've been reviewing my blog...all 329 entries (this one being #329). There was a lot of intelligent (one-sided) discussion throughout most of the blog...and a lot of it was just silly. For comic relief. And yet, it seems very few people ever find any of it interesting. Same seems to go with my book. It's not that when someone actually DOES sit down and read it, they think it (the book AND my blog) sucks. It's just that MOST people don't seem to want to be bothered by thinking or something. They want their Reality TV Shows. Trailer Trash is the new chic (so says MSNBC).

But anyway, now to the topic at hand.

The (real) headline for this news article was "Illegal immigrants demonstrate economic clout." On the main page, it's just "SHOW OF CLOUT" plus some other stuff. Well, perhaps they have shown some economic clout, what with being able to walk away from work to go protest. How much real political clout do they have? Well, lessee...hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants. They have how many votes?

Zero.

It could be just as easy for the owners of these companies to "cooperate" with law enforcement and threaten to call INS if they bail from work again.

Easy.

The real issue is that the illegal immigrant work force is just that: a force. Their stand-down for one day revealed how many of the undesirable jobs that exist out there would not get done if it weren't for them being here.

What's really strange in my mind is that we have thousands upon thousands of migrants taking all the menial jobs...and a lot of the technical and/or white-collar jobs are going to India, Pakistan, etc. This leaves Average Joe with what?

I know from experience that when I have a wife and kid to feed, and I've been doing white-collar work most of my life, and that my jobs have gone overseas (in one form or another), I will be more than willing to work at McDonalds.

But they would never hire me because of me being "overqualified." Duh! But all I want to do is feed my family!

Yes, there are hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who only want to be able to work and make something of their lives. I feel for these people, as they have had it tough. But there are millions of US Citizens who ALSO want the same thing. Even if it means doing the menial jobs. I know this, because I'm one of them.

How many of those jobs will there be left?

If it is truly in everyone's best interest to ease restrictions on migrant workers, then fine. But while we're ensuring the migrant workers are making money, ensure the citizens of this country ALSO can make money. For crying out loud.

Christine strikes again!

Woman dies near husband's grave - U.S. Life - MSNBC.com

The woman was run over by HER OWN CAR!

I swear, this is just like something out of a Stephen King novel. Wierd!