The Muppets Did It

The world’s largest retailer has been attempting to break into the East coast bastion of cacophonous, liberal mumbo jumbo, Manhattan. You know the island that we picked up for a handful of magic beans. Oops, that was Jack or was it Mrs. O’Leary’s cow? No that’s Chicago. I mean stole from the natives for some trinkets and a promise to infect their populations with small pox at a later date. Yes, Wal-Mart has been trying to invade and conquer Manhattan like it has done the rest of the world but it has been spurned at every turn. That evil reducer of prices and saver of the working man’s pocket book has tried to save the New Yorkers from spending too much on soap, deodorant and other household items. I guess their current stores must be much better that Wal-Mart because they do not promise lower prices.

Government, unions and public interest groups have been pushing to stop Wal-Mart from having a presence in Manhattan. They say that the practices of creating jobs and providing low cost products to the public would be damaging to the local economy. It would drive the established companies out that could not compete and devastate the local businesses. Since their wages are low and they don’t provide health insurance, it would drive up government sponsored health costs. Of course, no one has asked what the wages will be or looked at the actual healthcare that is offered. The unions don’t want to compete with a non-union shop that would demonstrate that the jobs can be done without perpetual breaks and continuous lunch. And the public interest groups read too many kook blogs and believe that the spotted owl has actually been sited on any property that Wal-Mart is looking at. As Bugs Bunny says, “Gull-a-bull.”

I think that Wal-Mart has taken the wrong approach to it public image campaign. They need to get with Disney and get the rights to use Kermit the Frog as their speaker. Together with Miss Piggy, they could tour the island and tout the benefits of what a local Wal-Mart super center would do for the average working Joe. Who could turn down a cute little Muppet? After all, what is a Muppet but someone putting word into the mouth of a felt covered character? And if you think about where the puppeteer’s hand is actually at, it is where most of the east coast liberals talk out of anyway. It is the perfect public relations campaign. Cute harmless puppets that would not hurt a flea representing the monolith of price conscious America. Maybe then, Wal-Mart could take Manhattan. But only if they had any dignity left.

Icool

Cobb

King Kong

So this is movie review week. My new found access to movies through the library has allowed me to see some movies that I would not have paid to see in the theater. I picked up a copy of the latest version of King Kong and begrudgingly liked it. It was directed by the guy who did the Lord of The Rings trilogy and it had all of the special effects and grandeur of those films. The beginning however, was so slow that I almost did not make it to see Kong.

This was pretty close to the original but the visual effects were outstanding. It was a computer generated gorilla that demonstrated that he was indeed the king of the jungle. One of the scenes has him fighting 4 tyrannosaurus rex that are trying to eat up his beautiful bride. He has them by the throat using both his hands and feet and the gymnastics are nothing short of brilliant. It makes the original’s stop action look like a kindergarten attempt at cinematography. Of course with today’s technology, I may be underestimating our 5 year olds.

By the end of the film, you are very much into the Kong character. They created a personality for him and the interaction with the “Fay Wray” character, Naomi Watts, creates an emotional event. You begin to feel for the majesty of the noble beast as man circles in the bi-planes and shoots at him. He is only trying to survive and man has removed him from his element. Man is bad. Beast is noble. Beauty conquers all. The remake had that immortal line, “Twas beauty killed the beast.” Unfortunately, the dragging beginning to this film killed the movie.

Icool

Cobb

White Chicks

Sometimes you watch a movie not because you have any great expectations of it being good. I had seen the previews from White Chicks on another DVD that we purchased. It had two black FBI agents that were protecting two blond, blue eyes, white heiresses from being kidnapped. The scenes from the preview were funny but not uproariously so and since they always put the funniest scenes in the previews, well… But since the Wayan’s Brothers had something to do with it and knowing how funny In Living Color was, I gave it a chance. I am glad I did.

The plot was basically non-existent. The continuity was severely lacking. It did have a beginning, a middle and an end and attempted a few sub plots but mostly it was about how to put two black men, dressed as attractive (I say that loosely) white women in comedic situations. One of the funniest scenes centers on how women all go to the bathroom together. One of the sisters (brothers) is allergic to dairy. They are at a cocktail party and she (he) chows on some tiny quiches. When one of the girls says slow down on the cheese, she (he) gets that oh crap expression and excuses herself (himself) to go to the bathroom. They all follow and the antics inside the bathroom stall are just hilarious. Nothing like a good fart joke to make a movie. And to top it off, there is a second fart scene later in the film.

So, there is nothing sophisticated about White Chicks. Most of the comedy is sight gags that play on white women who can run fast, throw like a man, or flirt with other women. Throw in professional black men trying to act like rich, young brainless, white women and you have a solid set up of scene after scene of one liners and mindless entertainment. This is one of the funniest movies I have seen in a while (I don’t get out much) and thanks to the library, it was free. Check out your local library if you want to save on those rental fees. They have movies you can’t find in the rental places and all it takes is a library card.

Icool

Daughter’s Plastic Baby Daddy

Our household had the experience that any parents of teenage daughters dread. My daughter came home on Friday afternoon with a baby boy. She did not bring the child home from the hospital and there were no signs leading up to the impending delivery, at least that I could see. She is taking a parenting class at school and one of the assignments is to bring home a plastic replica of a baby, complete with crying, cooing and diaper changing, to take care of for the weekend. Let me tell you, I am not ready to be a grand parent.

The weekend started off well and Patchi, my plastic robotic house guest, behaved for the first few hours. So we braved it and went out to Taco Bell for dinner. That is when the fun started. People were looking and pointing and making at the table remarks about that teenage girl with the baby. Of course she went out of her way to make sure they knew it was a doll. Then people were looking and pointing and making at the table remarks. Funny how people react. From there we went to Meijer for some grocery shopping. Since Patchi was in the carrier and visible, we had several people come up and ask questions. It was interesting to get other people’s reaction on a parenting class for teens. Most people found it to be a great idea that children would learn responsibility for taking care of a new born. We even had a small girl ask if she could play with the dolly. The fun started in the check out line when Patchi went off for the first time. He wanted fed and let out quite the wale to let everybody know.

It went down hill from there. He wanted his diaper changed and burped and fed again and it went on and on all night. My daughter had to log every event. Saturday night was the worst because the doll got fussy and would not settle down. I got 5 hours sleep Saturday night. This was not even my project and I was affected. By Sunday afternoon, we all were exhausted. I took my daughter to a local shopping center to buy a purse. She took Patchi with her. She drove, so I did not wear shoes (she has her temps but that is another entry) and waited outside the store with the carriage. One couple stopped and asked if I was taking a grand parenting class. I guess you could call it that but I told them it was a school project for my daughter.

In retrospect, it was an enlightening weekend. My daughter learned that babies require a lot of care and attention and are a definite restriction on you personal freedom. We learned that Patchi could be called Paco, Chachi, and other names and aggravate my daughter. I also realized that my daughter is growing up and in a few years will be doing this for real. Hopefully we have taught her the right lessons in life and she will follow God’s path for her. This was a great addition to the lessons we have taught her so far. Although I am still sleep deprived on Tuesday, it was a great learning opportunity for the entire household.

Icool

Cobb

Third Eye Blind

I know this is the name of a rock group (maybe I am dating myself by saying rock but…) and I am at a loss to name one of their songs. I know I have heard them because I recognize the name from WIOT but since their lead singer has not been busted numerous times for drugs or committed suicide, they are not someone I can spout from memory. What I like is the name. Third Eye Blind has an interesting resonance that peaks my sense of word play and alludes to something more than what you see.

It is obvious to most that humans have only two eyes. Unless you are talking about a Cyclops or dealing with arachnoids, two eyes is the norm. Mythology has the all Seeing Eye (check you dollar bill) or it talks about the inner eye. My assumption is that the name Third Eye Blind is a reference to the mythological inner eye that allows us to see the future or know things that we have no access to. Unfortunately, the reference is to a third eye that cannot see.

I know that I use a “third eye” called intuition. Some people are able to piece together answers from very little information. Everyone has an area of specialty that they have a greater insight than someone else. Some people have the ability to listen to a poorly performing automobile engine run and tell you what is wrong with it. Is that developed from doing something so often that it is second nature or is it the ability to string varying clues together and see the connections? I am a trivia junkie. I love Jeopardy and enjoy beating them to the buzzer. The basis of Jeopardy is that they give you the answer and you must give the question. Many of the categories provide a vague idea of what the answers will be but the contestants must intuit where each one will lead. Maybe it is a matter of pattern recognition or it could just be a gift. I guess when I start consistently coming up with the lotto numbers, I’ll know that I am Third Eye Sighted.

Icool

Cobb

How To Be An Easy Target

Somehow, the proponents of lunacy have once again published a step into the twilight zone. We now have a group of scientists that are so convinced that we are suffering the side effects of man made global climate change, which they are dreaming up ways to make the situation worse, I mean better. It sounds like the scenario in one of those B science fiction movies where an experiment goes astray and every attempt fix it, makes it worse. How can this baseless supposition be called science when the script was written in the 1950’s? It sounds like the doomsday crowd is again gathered for the annual ridiculous convention. Everyone get their alien ears out so we can look the part of idiots as well as act like them.

The article from Yahoo suggests that several scientists are advocating taking drastic action to slow/reverse/prevent man’s atmospheric contamination due to burning fossil fuels/exhaling/cow flatulence/deforestation. One scientist recommended making mechanical trees that convert CO2 into oxygen. Another gave the scenario of putting trillions of UFO type devices into the atmosphere to shade the Earth. The most dramatic was creating a man made volcano to spew toxic chemicals into the atmosphere. You have to love their creativity. It just goes to show how kooky the lunatic fringe is looking.

In the same vein of creativeness, I have several much cheaper and just as realistic solutions as our current group of scientific geniuses are purporting. They would not cost anything to implement as the money has already been spent. The stingy United States would be the country solely responsible for the efforts so the Kyoto Treaty group would not be able to say we are not pulling our weight. So here goes. The first is to launch the entire US nuclear arsenal and cause a nuclear winter. That would be a sure fire method to reduce the planetary warming trend. No, too 1980’s?

Okay, how about causing a 1918 style flu epidemic but have it like Captain Trips in Stephen King’s The Stand. So you end up with about 2% of the population around. No pollution or breathing and if you can get it to kill the cows also, no bovine flatulence to add to the mix. So you don’t like that one either. Boy you are hard to please.

All right, last idea then. We take every mirror and create a giant reflecting surface that sends the suns rays back into outer space. Since the Sahara Desert is both barren and full of sunshine, it would make a great place to put it. So you don’t kill people or cows and actually use barren land for something useful. No, why not? You just bought a shade of new mascara. Oh well, I guess beauty has its price.

Icool

Cobb

Unions In Government

We expect our government to provide top notch service and to be responsive to our needs. We are paying good money, through taxes, tariffs, tolls, and other extortion methods to keep our government officials frolicking on the luxury to which they have become accustomed. Of course, they have set the bar themselves, so it is a matter of what manner of luxury you can dream of that defines accustomed. But this is not about those, we have zombie voted into office. It is about why we have allowed civil service employees to organize into unions and why it is so difficult to remove incompetent workers from their jobs.

As an employee of a unionized company, I recognize the needs of the members of a work force to be protected from the excesses of management stupidity. There are plenty of decisions made by upper management that resemble the aftermath of a tornado. Of course, the flip side of the equation is that hourly associates are constantly making bad decisions about work related situations that result in cost to their employer. Very simple things like not showing up for work, leaving early, making scrap parts, or failure to follow directions can cost a company a significant amount of money in the short term and over time. Many times, the union will protect an employee even when they know that employee willfully and knowingly did something that caused harm to the business. That does not mean that the employee cannot be fired. It may be difficult to accomplish, but getting rid of bad employees in the private sector does happen. But civil service employees are a different matter.

I am not saying that civil service employees are poor performers. In any job, there are people who are there to do the job and do whatever it takes. There are also lazy, sloven, worthless people who are there to do as little as possible and complain about the little they do. These are the people that I am addressing. Now, we have placed people with that work ethic in secure government jobs and when they do not perform, we are stuck with their lack of performance. To boot, we have officials that we have elected that support this behavior. We should expect our government to be responsive to what they have promised. Allowing workers for life to unionize sounds depressingly like what Stalin did for his mighty USSR. He created a level of apathy that has been very difficult for Russia to get past. When there is no incentive to perform task beyond the minimum level and then only when threatened, it does not make for anything less than a recipe for disaster. Hopefully as the baby boomers start to retire in the next few years and discover that they are getting the public sector standard for their retirement issues, they will assist their elected representatives in making better decisions about how the government is run. Throw the pigs out.

Wake up comrade! You are having a delusion. It is time for morning gruel and our trek to the salt mines.

Icool

Cobb

The Ides Have It

In what should be a major Italian holiday, we have once again reached the Ides of March. Most people have heard the phrase but are not sure of the origin or why we even talk about it. According to the historian Plutarch, a soothsayer told Julius Caesar to beware the Ides of March, which he conveniently ignored. He was stabbed to death by Brutus and a host of Roman Senators. We have the memorable et tu Brute? quote from the Bard as a classic line of accusation.

So what exactly is an ide? It is relic from the Roman calendar. Each month contained an ide. It was the 15th of the month in March, May, July and October and the 13th of every other month. It actually is a Roman reference to the middle of the month. So an ide means that you have made it half way into the current month. Why it occurs on the 13th of some months is beyond me.

So the phrase “Ides of March” have become associated with the foretelling of doom. I had always thought that an ide was a bad event but it only marks a midpoint and does not actually have any other significance. If it hadn’t been for a fortune teller who got one right for a change, Caesar’s death would have been known as another civil war in Rome and not the out of use phrase for foreshadowing of bad things to come.

Icool

Cobb

Iranians Ban American Flag Burning

In an amazing turn of events, the Iranian theocracy has banned the burning of the American flag. A spokesman for the Iranian government said, “We wanted to show the infidels, I mean American people, that our democracy is more effective than theirs. One of the agenda items for the American Congress was to pass a Constitutional amendment banning the burning of their flag. Their system failed where as our glorious democracy passed it with 100% in favor.” While reviewing the law, the penalty for burning the flag is to be interred in a training camp for suicide bombers and be forced to do a public performance in any open market in Baghdad. In other news, several members of the Iranian Parliament were stoned to death today after being found guilty of an attempted coup.

Sorry, but the news of the Iranian government being upset by the movie 300 just drove me crazy. The idea of 300 Spartan soldiers holding off the Persian army makes for a great movie idea. The Iranian government is upset by the portrayal of the Persians as barbarians. I would suggest that it pretty well describes how anyone living in the 21st century views most people who lived in the BC era. The amount of fighting and the way any army treated another would certainly not be up to the Geneva Convention.

Another issue is who are the Persians? I would venture to say that if you haven’t seen the movie, you may think that the 300 Spartans were fighting an army of giant cats. After all, the only modern reference to Persians is the Persian cat. If you asked people where Persia was, not many Americans would say Iran. It would probably be more likely that they would say Catalina or Litterboxia. That the Iranian government is upset about the portrayal of Persian warriors more than 2000 years ago is as realistic as their banning the burning of the Stars and Stripes. Of course they have no compunction to refrain from accusing Americans for every little thing that happens in the world but let us show the true character of the warriors of an ancient battle and we have insulted them. Yo, theocratic dictators. Get a life.

Icool

Cobb

Stating The Obvious

Don’t you love a news headline that tells you something you already know? One of today’s top five articles to read on Yahoo is “Many workers live paycheck to paycheck.” If that is not a duh, I am not sure what is. Our current consumer based economy with the marketing driven need to buy has caused Americans to chase the elusive next best thing. I remember watching the Saturday morning commercials or leafing through the Sears catalog and making my wish list for Christmas. The only money I had was what I made mowing lawns or raking leaves. 30 years ago you would spend two hours mowing someone’s lawn and get maybe $5.00 or $10.00 if you were lucky. Now kids won’t touch that for less that $30.00 (I have not priced youth labor lately) and probably closer to $50.00. Kids with cars and jobs seem much more prevalent today and there is much more buying power that when I was a kid.

With all of that money sitting in the hands of our nations youth, it is no wonder that television and radio have targeted them as the prime subjects to beam the gotta have propaganda. There is that word again. You are not cool unless you have the cell phone, the IPOD, and the latest ring tone. Whether it is a TV show or commercial or magazine ad, it tells our children that they are not good enough, cool enough, smart enough or any other enough unless they get the latest thing. It does not help that Hollywood or the cult of music assists with this frivolous pursuit. It all boils down to the almighty dollar. Wrong altar to worship at.

The fun thing about the article is that is actually points out several reasons for living from paycheck to paycheck. One of them is eating out too much. When I can cook a meal for 10 people that costs less than $20.00 (it was roast pork tenderloin, rosemary Yukon gold potatoes and sweetened corn) and that is what you would pay for 2 in a restaurant, I can see why people live that way. The article said little about their pay. It was more about being responsible for what you earn and using it wisely. That is not something that we are going to learn from the media. It is a lesson that parents should impart to their children. Unfortunately many parents use the idiot box as a baby sitter which allows Madison Avenue to be a major player is their children’s lives. Turn off the idiot box and make them read a book or play outside. Playing sports or being involved with a music program demonstrate to our children that teamwork and practice are what matter in life. It is not what you can amass that makes you who you are.

Icool

Cobb

More Than A Feeling

The world of music lost one of the golden voices of rock last weekend. Brad Delp, the voice behind the group Boston died at the age of 55. There appeared to be no foul play or drug overdose. The latest comment was that he died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Brad's vocal range was what made him such an amazing singer. The way his voice would follow the guitar as Tom Scholz wound his fingers up the frets is nothing short of magic. Of course, the mixing in the studio I am sure added to that unbelievable sound.

I know that I am going out on a limb by putting out who I think the best vocalists of rock and roll are but it is only my list of favorites. The best voices of the golden age of rock are as follows:

1. Paul Rodgers of Free, Bad Company, The Firm and lately of Queen
2. Bon Scott of AC/DC
3. Lou Gramm of Foreigner
4. Brad Delp of Boston
5. Freddie Mercury of Queen

The order is really not important as I listed them while mentally running through my library of music. I know that each of them has their own unique quality that adds greatly to the musicians they played with. Unfortunately three of the voices on the list have passed on but we still have their music to remember them by and is some cases, that may be for the best. So to celebrate the passing of one rock and rolls greats...

More Than A Feeling

I looked out this morning and the sun was gone
Turned on some music to start my day
I lost myself in a familiar song
I closed my eyes and I slipped away

It’s more than a feeling,
When I hear that old song they used to play (more than a feeling)
I begin dreaming (more than a feeling)
’till I see Marianne walk away
I see my Marianne walkin’ away

So many people have come and gone
Their faces fade as the years go by
Yet I still recall as I wander on
As clear as the sun in the summer sky

It’s more than a feeling,
When I hear that old song they used to play (more than a feeling)
I begin dreaming (more than a feeling)
’till I see Marianne walk away
I see my Marianne walkin’ away

When I’m tired and thinking cold
I hide in my music, forget the day
And dream of a girl I used to know
I closed my eyes and she slipped away
She slipped away. She slipped away.

It’s more than a feeling,
When I hear that old song they used to play (more than a feeling)
I begin dreaming (more than a feeling)
’till I see Marianne walk away
I see my Marianne walkin’ away

Icool

Cobb

Edison Is Spinning In His Grave

The latest push by the “We are the world lovers” is to switch the world from the current light bulb to fluorescent lighting. Poor Thomas Edison, the man who provided humanity the opportunity to party 24/7, is being thrown aside for the new and improved version of energy saving lights. Yes, fluorescent lights are the newest savior for the wild and whacked warriors of the return to the Stone Age movement. We can save the planet and get back to living in caves much sooner if we would just convert our houses to fluorescent lighting. The incandescent light (our current bulb) has been around for more than 100 years. The fluorescent bulb, in its modern form, was invented in 1926 and has become the standard for offices and factories. When you do not need instant light, the fluorescent bulb works great but the slowness of the glow run counter to Americans need for speed.

Today’s Yahoo article talks about Americans being slow to adopt green technologies for home construction. When it comes to lighting, we are not in step with the rest of the world. What is confusing is that my computer does not have a light bulb in it. My oven, fridge, washer, dryer and freezer all have light bulbs but I do not think that a fluorescent bulb would be advantageous for those applications. You would waster more energy waiting for the bulb to come on. So now we are just talking lights. If you have kids in your house, you know that there is an inability to understand the physics of the light switch. If the light switch is up the light is on (unless you have a two or three way switch) and when you exit the room, it should be down. For some reason, we end up with every light in the house on and no one home. I can’t imagine that the dogs are afraid of the dark.

So what other green technologies are there. I guess better hot water heaters and higher energy furnaces and air conditioners. Most new houses put in the energy saving models. The article in Yahoo has this line; “Nothing is stopping building owners from making investment in plants and equipment except they don't want to do it." It is attributed to Peter Fusaro, founder of Global Change Associates, an environmental consultancy. Apparently someone has a vague grasp of capitalism. There is no altruism when it comes to making money. It is about turning out a product as inexpensively as possible and selling it for what the market will bear. Supply and demand baby. That is something that Edison knew oh too well. He managed to convince Europe to implement direct current instead of the easier to transform and transmit alternating current.

The next wave in lighting is the light emitting diode or LED. I do not understand the push for fluorescent when a better, safer, energy saving device is right around the corner. I guess they do live in caves. There is no other explanation for the way they think.

Icool

Cobb

The Next Level of Support

This has been a great week for news that you just can’t believe. Yesterday’s Yahoo article of the day was, “Woman Sues Doctors For Child Support.” Sounds like an article of a doctor who may have become too friendly with one of the staff and ended up fathering a child. I am sure it has happened a few times in since the dawn of modern medicine. After all, we learn to play doctor as children and some people just stay at that level of maturity. But this has nothing to do with work place hanky panky. This is about a woman who has a two year old daughter and is suing the doctors that botched her abortion and missed the fact that she was still pregnant. Yes, the woman did not want the child and tried to kill it in utero. I would think that adoption was an option at the time of birth and if you did not want the child before you had it and went as far as attempted murder, asking for money now would make you an extortionist as well as well.

So here we have doctors that kill babies for a living (yes it was Planned Parenthood) being sued because they did not do their jobs well enough. That rings closely to absurd. You have a mother who instead of accepting the responsibility for her actions (I know, it takes two to tango and two to really compete) has chosen to perform her newly assumed liberty, litigation. Yes it has become the latest craze only to be supplanted by adopting children from Africa. What boggles the mind even more is she is suing one of the doctors because he failed to diagnose her as pregnant after the botched abortion. What happened? I know they stopped using rabbits due to PETA having issues with killing them to determine pregnancy. So the stick didn’t turn blue when she peed on it?

I think the father of the child should get in on the act and sue the mother for joint custody and child support. That way they can really stick the doctors with a big bill because there will be two households that need the money. Two adults can move to the life of Riley and drink the milk of prosperity because the doctors weren’t capable of killing her child when she wanted them to. This is justice come full circle. We are always looking for someone to blame and sue when there is any kind of accident. The moron who picks up his lawnmower to trim his hedges and loses his fingers is a prime example of how absurd the situation has become. Now we have people who kill babies being sued because the baby lived. I say give her a refund (unless this was paid for by the taxpayers) and tell her to get a job. Of course her job before the pregnancy may have been the problem to begin with. The article didn’t go into that much depth.

Icool

Cobb

Gasoline Shortages In Iran

This is what I would call turn about being fair play. The number 2 oil exporting country in the world is facing a gasoline shortage that is costing them billions of dollars every year. Iran is selling gasoline for $0.08 (yes that 8 cents) per gallon. What is even more idiotic is there solution is to raise the price to $0.10 per gallon. This is a comedy of how not to run your country and reflects how a simple way of appeasing your population can turn into an expensive proposition.

The reason this is costing Iran money is that they only have refining capacity to make to make 42 million liters of gasoline per day while their consumption is 70 million liters. Now the use of metric in an article for American readers is absurd. You would think that the author would have the brains to translate the number into gallons, if for no other reason than that is how things are measured here. But no, 42 million liters (they spell it litres like the French) is a much bigger number than 10.5 million gallons (a liter is close enough to a quart to call it square). But I digress. So Iran is importing gasoline to meet its demand all the while they are exporting petroleum at ever increasing prices. To top it off, Iranians are buying the cheap gas and driving it across the borders to neighboring countries and selling it at higher prices. Gotta love free enterprise.

Now I see several options to fix this problem. Iran is going to raise gas prices by 2¢ per gallon and limit the quantity that can be purchased at that price. Any quantity purchased after the limit would be at a higher price. This smells like rationing and price controls and does a raspberry in the face of capitalism. Another, possible, even logical option would be to build refineries to meet the demand. They have the oil money and the technology. After all, aren’t they chasing the nuclear dream? The refineries would provide jobs and provide the much needed gasoline. Another is they could stop subsidizing the price of gasoline and let it float at what the market would bear. This might aggravate the population but when has Iran cared about keeping its population happy. When will nations learn that the market is the most effective way to distribute goods? Hording, rationing and price controls are what led the USSR to its destruction. Even Red China has found it is easier and more profitable to let the market flow.

I look forward to the day when the gasoline engine is in the museum and the natural resource this is petroleum will be nothing more than a footnote in the history books. With their economic wealth gone, there will once again be camel trains crossing the desert. Instead of using their power to bully, they would be much further ahead if they developed their economies. I guess Allah has not provided that vision as the way of the future. Well, since there are not any virgins involved, it must not be as important as blowing up Americans.

(Click on the heading to get to the article)

Icool

Cobb

A Self Grooming Pet

We are the proud owners of two pure mutt dogs. They are the rabble rousers at our house and keep everyone entertained with their continuous antics. Our first dog was a fox terrier named Brownie. She was very smart and very temperamental but we did not spoil her. My sister would feed her dog ice cream and give them table scraps while our dog was given dry food and too bad if she wanted something else. The kids quickly threw a monkey wrench into that decision with their “see the funny doggy” as they tossed food off the high chair. After thirteen years, she became arthritis ridden, could no longer get on and of the porch, and became incontinent and we knew it was time to put her down. It was the hardest thing I have ever done.

Our two newest pets have it considerably better. We have a female that is part Whippet and part Border Collie. The other is a male whose mother was a Border Collie and the father must have been a hound. They get dry dog food mixed with Alpo chunks and stirred with warm water. We try to keep them groomed a little better and purchased toe nail clippers to keep their feet from becoming deformed. The female lets us hold her and was relatively complacent when we trimmed her toe nails. The male wanted nothing to do with trimming his nails. I held him and my wife grabbed his front paw. He started peeing all over. We stopped and tried to calm him down. The second time he peed on us (of course when I say us, I mean me.) Since I was holding him, I got the brunt of the stream. Not being one to get bested by a dog, I draped him with a towel and held him tighter for the third try. Somehow he managed to fling the towel off and once again, he peed on me. Needless to say I had enough. I had to ask myself who was the smarter one. I had my doubts.

So we decided to take him to the vet to get his nails trimmed. Well, a couple weeks went by and we looked at his paws to see if it was time. To our amazement, they were trimmed. I looked at my wife who shrugged her shoulders and commented “not me.” So I started watching him and low and behold, he chews his own nails. He wakes up from a nap, licks his feet and if he finds a toe nail too long, starts to gnaw on it. He also has managed to figure out a way to open the back sliding glass door to let himself out. If we can get him to close it when he comes back in, we may have something.


Icool

Cobb

Legislating Behavior

I can see why our elected officials would want to pass laws to control killing and stealing. After all, we had those handed down by God to Moses in the form of two stone tablets. I can see why those we put in office would want to stop people from driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol or prohibit the manufacture or traffic of illegal drugs. Some things are common sense. There should be laws that prevent people from hurting each other or themselves. What needs to be looked at is when laws are passed for our own good or because someone things it is in our best interest. Since all of the big issues have been addressed, our government officials seem to feel the need to chase kook fringe ideas that provide no real benefit.

The latest hot bed of stupid government tricks is coming from the east coast haven for liberal idiocy, New York. A few weeks ago they passed a law to protect their citizens from trans-fats. Most people do not even know what trans-fats are or that they are being used in the manufacture of their food. But some governmental official was fed information that by banning trans-fats from all food prepared in New York, they would create healthier people. It may stop one element from people’s diet but if they were eating healthy to begin with, they would not have been eating things prepared with trans-fats. If they had a poor diet before the ban, it will do little to correct that issue. Of course the government officials pat themselves on the back for creating healthier citizens and the average weight of the US population continues to go up. Way to go.

The newest issue is the banning of racial slurs in New York. Wow, they are making it illegal to use the “N” word. In New York, the only ones that still use it have turned it into a greeting between friends and not a slur. Although it still has the wrong connotation when used in the wrong company, it is not a word that carries the same weight as it did 20 or 30 years ago. Television has done one great thing since its inception. It has allowed people with real talent to shine. It is not hard to recognize that talent is not confined to one group of people. As that great philosopher, Michael Jackson says, “Don’t matter if your black or white.”

Icool

Cobb

Perpendicular

Since we have started a geometrical word segment, I though it would be fitting to look at another item where lines are exact but meet creating 90º angles; perpendicular. After extensive research (looking it up in the on-line dictionary), the Webster’s Dictionary has it as; 1 a : standing at right angles to the plane of the horizon : exactly upright b : being at right angles to a given line or plane. What did we ever do before the internet?

The key to perpendicular is the right angles. It creates that special triangle called the right triangle and that wonderful mathematical equation a^2+b^2=c^2. The length of any side of a right triangle can be determined if you have the length of the other two sides. I am sure it is one of the questions that could have been asked by Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader and missed by 90% of adults. Most adults have no use for mathematical equations once they are out of school. When was the last time you needed to calculate the area of anything? Unless you are in the skilled trades or engineering, geometry is almost never used. Of course you have those people that are constantly remodeling their homes that have to reacquire the skill set every time they go to Lowes.

Perpendicular plays a big role in remodeling. If you don’t make sure that your walls are perpendicular, it creates a whole host of other issues. Flooring, shelving, furniture and wallpaper all become issues when the wall is not completely perpendicular to the floor. I know from experience. Our first house needed a bathroom fix up and believe me, I know when to call a professional. That would be for everything except the painting. My ability to measure and use the level are extremely suspect. I have a great respect for those in the building trades. I know it is a job that looks simple but is requires a greater level of skill than I have been able to muster.

Icool

Cobb