Americanablog

I finally have my computer up and running again. It seems both my monitor and video card went out. Fortunately, I got a great deal on a G-Force II ($20.00!). Unfortunately, all that video processing power is relegated to a 13" monitor. But, hey...that's the same size as the first monitor I had, and I used it for a couple of years.

Now, assuming I'm not wracked with writer's block again, I'll be able to update a little more regularly.

When I got home this evening, after putting on a pot of coffee, checking on The Cheat's food and water, and eating a few slices of pizza, I sat down at my computer. After jogging the mouse a little, the monitor sprung to live, only to reveal that my computer was locked up due to a C++ Runtime error. So, I rebooted it. After a couple of subsequent reboots due to a failure of the machine to detect the mouse, I finally sat down for a night of slacking. Then, all sudden-like, the picture on the monitor started looking like something out of a Frank Zappa video, and I began to smell the distinct odor of a successful takeout by a bug zapper...then it went black.

I quickly turned off the monitor to see what would happen when I turned it back on. It did the same thing. So, I decided to unplug it and go visit my brother while it cooled off. A few hours later, I returned home, tried the monitor again, and it's now working. I don't know how long this will last. It could start the Zappatography again at any moment, for all I know. But, I've decided to go ahead and make a blog entry about it in order to announce another potential hiatus -- this one not quite as voluntary as my previous ones.

If this baby goes out, it could be a few days before I get back on to blog again, or longer. But, hopefully, I can find a great deal on one, or at least get a loaner fairly quickly.

So, this is a heads-up. I have no idea how many people are reading this, but thanks to those who do. If I should disappear, again, keep checking back every few days, and wish me luck!

Looks like one of my former all-time favorite bands is heading to court. What I've heard of their new stuff sounds like...well...Van Halen without David Lee Roth. I don't see how they managed to convince the folks at Camden Yard that they were worth the generous deal that had apparently been on the table -- $1.5 million, plus 80% of ticket sales, plus 80% of gross merchandise revenues.

I'm thinking the folks at Oriole Park should simply fail to show up in court, lose by default, and thank God that's all they're losing.

'Exorcist: The Beginning' is apparently a horrible piece of celluloid. Why has every attempt to follow along this particular storyline been such an utter failure?

I remember seeing the original on television as a child and having trouble sleeping for several nights thereafter. Even as an adult, the movie gave me the creeps. I also saw "Exorcist II: The Heretic" and "Exorcist III", and had trouble sleeping after those as well. Except, in those cases, I tossed, turned, and thrashed about the bed in agony, thinking of all the other things I could have spent those hours doing.

I won't be making that mistake this time.

Well, I'm back from my birthday hiatus. That's what I'll call it, anyway. I had a 35th birthday, and then I signed up for an "Office Technology" class at a local community technical school. Essentially, it's going over a lot of stuff I already know, plus getting familiar with a few applications I've never used before....particularly, Microsoft's Excel, Access, and Power Point.

I figure there's no way I'm wasting my time, or money. It helps to know that stuff.

I've changed the setting so that anyone may comment, rather than registered users only.

My cat, The Cheat, killed and ate my fish, RePete, last night. He killed and ate Pete just about a month ago. Today will be a day of mourning for me, and retribution for The Cheat. I'm currently deliberating on a just punishment.

Murderer.
Posted by Hello

What have they done?
Posted by Hello

Four years ago, you would have thought the only school Al Gore managed to graduate from was the Hulk Hogan Center for Public Policy. His "rousing" stump speeches, complete with a top-of-the-lung growl that sounded like a melding of Harvey Fierstein and Louis Armstrong, centered on a willingness to "fight". He vowed to fight for the elderly, providing them with prescription drug coverage. He vowed to fight for the children by decreasing class sizes in public schools. I think he may even have sworn to fight on behalf of the goiter afflicted by raising iodine content in table salt.

Now, it appears it's Kerry's turn to "fight". This time, it's for steel jobs. But, who will he fight against? And what, exactly, does he mean by "fighting"? After all, if he means sticking it to nations who engage in steel dumping, it's going to make it tough to be more "respectful of the world" when Japan, Russia, Ukraine, China, the UK, and EU have all engaged in it, to one degree or another.

My best guess is that Kerry plans to reach out to France in an attempt to soothe relations with other EU member states, and use that influence to put pressure on all the other nations of the world who use the US as a scrap heap. One problem with that is that none of the other nations of the world care much for France, either. The other problem is that France has stated its intention of being a counterbalance to US power and influence in the world -- essentially saying, "If the US is fer' it, we're agin' it."

Does anyone really expect that to change one iota if Kerry were to win the White House?

Tonight, I've been experiencing a bit of internet nostalgia, recalling the days when I surfed the 'net with a blazingly fast 28.8K modem on a P-75 with 8 MB of RAM. Back then, before web-based bulletin boards and blogs were popular, there were (and still are) newsgroups. That's where I honed my internet debating skills and learned how to insult complete strangers. It's also where I found some of the most side-splittingly funny writing I've ever witnessed.

Some UseNet denizens out there may already be familiar with him, but for those who've never heard of the guy, check out the newsgroup postings of one Samuel Johnson III. It's some of the most strangely hilarious stuff I've ever read in my life. I've never been able to confirm whether the hilarity is intentional, or not. And, frankly, to find out would be something like learning the true identity of Santa Claus.

But be warned...some of the posts appear in some less than family friendly newsgroups. So, click at your own risk.

Colin McNickle shoves back in today's column, reminding readers that he never did get an answer to the question he posed to Mrs. Heinz-Kerry, and recounting a few instances where Kerry supporters heaped scorn on him.

Of course, the story isn't really about what McNickle, or Heinz-Kerry, or what she said to the man. The truth is, it's about the horror that liberals experience when their patriotism is called into question. But, rather than try to demonstrate their patriotism in some way -- such as listing some of the things they've done in their lives to show their love of country, or recounting some tale of how they've been touched by the American Experience, they immediately bewail "the atmosphere". Rather than simply list the things they love about America, the accuse conservatives of wrapping themselves in the flag that belongs to us all.

And, it's a sad day when Democrats make this phenomenon a key part of their message to the country. It seems their message is, "No matter what anyone says or does, their patriotism is above question". Whether you're in Europe giving speeches in which you tick off the ways in which the American public are stupid and inferior, or in Hussein-era Baghdad calling into question the motives of the President of the United States, people have no right to ask you the significance of your actions, or the meaning of your words.

Liberals like Michael Moore, Jim McDermott, and David Bonior assert that they "love this country" with all the conviction of a Baptist minister praising Jesus. But, the fact is, they're pretty ambivalent toward the America in which they exist. What they love is the America they envision. And, if by some chance they ever achieve that America, they will be free to call my patriotism into question, because that will be an America in which I will no longer believe.

I'm guessing someone down the line has lied to this poor fellow. Supposedly, he forked over ten large to get his "Yorkshire Terrier" back from a dognapper. But, is that a Yorkie in the pic? Looks more like a Lhasa Apso to this particular blogger.

Apparently, I missed all the quotes from Mike Tyson concerning "too much weed". Sure, he's gotten older, and maybe has lost the speed, strength and outright intimidation he once possessed in spades. But, in his defense, I have to admit -- if I was high, Buster Douglas, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis, and Danny Williams could probably kick my ass, too.

Of all my childhood heroes, they had to do a biopic on Evel Knievel. Why?

Unfortunately, when trying to define and illustrate what lay beneath Knievel's macho bravado, all that apparently resides there is a blank canvas. In his heyday, he is shown to have been a jerk and a blowhard and, worse, suffered the sin of being monumentally uninteresting when he wasn't plotting death-defying stunts. As a result, TNT's "Evel Knievel" is the tedious tale of a shallow man, told with a garishness that perfectly matches its utter lack of depth.

Don't get me wrong. I'm as iconoclastic as the next malcontent. But, it's not as if Knievel has been "getting away with something" all these years. Childhood legend has it that he broke every bone in his body in pursuit of the ultimate jump. Can Tony Hawk make that claim? And how exciting can one be when he spends his days off in traction?

Personally, I'd rather see William H. Macy playing Jim Bakker in the "PTL Story". Or, Susan Powter in Abu Graihb. The prison, not the movie.

A piece in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer goes to great lengths to make sure that Joe Wilson doesn't become the suject:

Wilson also was wrong in assuming his information went to Vice President Dick Cheney; but the report says Cheney should have been briefed. Beyond that, Wilson can appear self-promotional, and caustic, even bombastic, as critics gleefully trumpet. But, much as they might wish, his personality isn't the issue.

Where were these sticklers for on-subjectude when Ken Starr was being trashed as a rightwing zealot, sex-obsessed puritan, and (as David Kendall backhandedly referred to him) "pious man"?

The fact of the matter is, Joe Wilson is a hotdog, he does have a grudge against the Bush administration, and he has been proven wrong. Try as they might, the editors at the Seattle P-I aren't going to put a sheen on this particular bit of scat, because they obviously don't know it from Shine-ola.

Only in the major city editorial rooms can someone be so strongly defended for being so wrong, while another can be personally savaged for being so right. Luckily for Ken Starr, he doesn't give a tinker's damn about what the editorial boards think of him. Unfortunately for Joe Wilson, it's all he gives a damn about.

Well...that, and cocktail parties.

I can't help imagining Michael Moore "raising the roof" with his hands upon reading this tidbit. Come to think of it, is anyone monitoring his cell phone traffic? Does he have a satellite phone? Perhaps bin Laden has copies of "Roger & Me" and "The Awful Truth" on DVD.

After well over a year of inactivity, I've decided I might as well get back into blogging. Why I drifted away is a bit of a mystery even to me, but one key reason has to do with hit counts. My first go-round started off well enough. I was blogging fairly regularly, if not daily, and coming up with some decent material on occasion. Then, for some reason, I found myself worrying about the number of hits I was getting.

Why? Ego, I suppose. It's nice to check your stats and see that someone out there actually went to the trouble of clicking on your link, just to read what you have to say. And, there for a while, I was piling hundreds of hits per day.

Then, it occurred to me. "What if I write something utterly moronic? What if all these people start expecting me to be cogent and relevant everyday??"

Of course, that would assume that I was cogent or relevant to begin with -- a pretty big stretch.

Still, lately I've found myself with a hankering to jump back in. And, so...here goes.