October 2004 Archives

Apple has announced that they're releasing a digital box set of all of U2's albums, plus 25 previously unreleased tracks.

For $149.00

THAT'S FREAKING AWESOME!

It's not that I don't like getting comments from the genuine readers out there, and it's not like I want to stop discourse, because I really do like getting to hear from people, even when they disagree with me, but...

I'm sick and fucking tired of assholes in other countries trying to hijacking my website and put links all over my stuff to sell their goddamn stupid medications. I don't need to be your shill for your illicit drugs.

Until I can find another way to get this resolved, I'm going to leave comments turned off. Sorry guys.

I'm a little worried about tonight, now that the World Series has gone to Busch Stadium. It's not that I don't think that the Sox aren't able to hack it, but they have to make some changes so they can play by National League rules. Pedro will have to bat, Ortiz will have to play first base or sit out (which isn't really an option...the Sox need his big bat). Plus, the Sox have made 4 errors in each game so far. In Fenway, that doesn't seem to make an impact on them, but this time around, in someone else's house, it could sink them.

I don't want to make a guess how the game's going to go. I'm just going to watch and cheer on my family's team. (Baseball is the only sport we all agree on).

So a conversation at my office with one of my co-workers who had NEVER seen Berry Gordy's The Last Dragon started a whole chain of events where I ended up downloading the soundtrack from iTunes and I haven't stopped listening to it yet.

Someone has got to help me.

"...you are the Last Dragon, you won't test the power of the glow..."

Watching the World Series, what a blast to see Jimmy Fallon and Tom Hanks sitting up above the Green Monster cheering the Red Sox on. It's like the whole world comes out and cheers when the Sox make it to the Series.

While I'm at it, I want to go tell those who scoff at the title "World Series" since baseball's seen as a primarily American sport (with the help of the Japanese), but look at the teams, and the vast array of countries represented by the people on those teams. That's a lot of world out there playing.

If that's not good enough for you, and it still sticks in your craw that we continue to call it the World Series and your country isn't represented, feel free to raise a team and send it here. Otherwise, shut up.

Go Sox!

I'm wathing "Man on Fire"...dark movie, dark dark dark movie.

It has Christopher Walken in it, and when he says dark things, they just sound cooler. He should be the grim reaper sent to reap the souls of the evil and vile.

But speaking of Denzel Washington's character to a cop, he says:
"A man...can be an artist...in anything, food, women, it depends on how good he is at it. Creasy's art is death. He's about to paint his masterpiece".

That wins for best line of the year for me.

So I've been at work for a week, and I have a few impressions:
I'm excited because I get to have some input. I get to help guide decisions. And the work is interesting. I get to have my hands in many things at once, and that's exciting.

I finally have a window. A real window. It looks down onto Center City Philadelphia. I'm up on the 18th floor, and we're actually at a corner of the block of skyscrapers so that most of the buildings right near us are smaller, so I can see the street, and sidewalk vendors, and traffic. It's nice. I joked with a friend that Philadelphia is like some women I know: she doesn't get any prettier, no matter how high you get. But I kid. In reality, it's not true. From up here, things are peaceful, and calm.

I get to take the train every day into work. It's time that I can devote to work, or to reading a book, or, as I did yesterday morning into work, take a nap. It's soothing, and despite having to sit in very tight corners with people I don't know, it's personal time. Now, once I get that iPod, things will be even nicer.

I think, all in all, this was a good decision for me, and I'm glad I moved to this job. Not that I didn't enjoy MortgageRamp. I did. I really liked the people that I worked with, and the work that I did. But it was time for me to move. I'm grateful for the things that they taught me at MortgageRamp, and I'm ready to apply them here.

I don't dare get up and get a drink in case I miss anything.
I don't dare get up and go to the bathroom for fear it will change something.
I don't dare breath, because my Sox are leading 9-3 in the bottom of the 8th, and I can see the faint light of victory on the horizon.

Tonight baby, the Sox shut it down in Yankee Stadium and hand the boys in their girly pinstripes the final loss. Oh I can dream, anyway. I want so bad for it to happen, and I really think that it can, but I'm worried that if I get my hopes up too much, I'll have the rug yanked out from underneath me.

But I'm going to keep say it: "Go Sox Go!!!"

ps - A-Rod is cheating little punk.

Heather and I are sitting here on the couch watching the Sox and sweating the game. It's the bottom of the 14th, and we're waiting, just waiting for one of the Sox's mighty bats to roar, and they're not.

Also, the more I see Jeter's smug face, the more I hate him. It's nothing personal, he just embodies the smug indifference of the Evil Empire he plays for.

A student in Pine Bush, NY was arrested and taken out of his school in cuffs because his civil war replica rifle he'd used during battle reenactments was in the trunk of his car. Never mind the fact that the gun CAN'T SHOOT ANYTHING...no, the school had him arrested and charged. Is this kind of stupidity we're going to continue to put up with because a few people are afraid of guns? What's next? Banning the use of the word gun in school? Oh wait...that's already been done.

Thank God sanity is prevailing.

Michelle Malkin is running a series of stories that are called "Liberals Are So Lovely", which highlights, in her mind, attacks from liberals on Republicans. So, for example, she linked to this story which shows a man's car that was vandalized because he had a sign in his car that said: "Democrats Kill Babies, Attack Churches, Slander President Bush, But Accuse Others of Spreading Hate". Let's just ignore the directly inflammatory nature of the man's flier in his car, and the fact that he was putting it there to piss people off (otherwise, why tar all 'liberals' with that brush he was using?) and say this:

It's stupid and pointless to denounce an entire group of people based on the actions of a few, UNLESS, said action is directed from the leadership. Hence, there isn't the claim that the guy kicking the protestor at the RNC represents ALL Republicans, but is just a complete ass himself. Also, isn't it possible that these acts of violence are just random acts of vandalism that are prepetrated by children, teenagers, who, in their rage lash out at those who they feel are in power? Probably, and we only hear more about it because of the highly charged election we're going through now, and increased media coverage, including all of the bloggers jumping all over the story.

I don't excuse the actions. Breaking someone's car window because you don't agree with the message, no matter now ugly it is, is wrong. But to turn and say "Those Damn Liberals" is shortsighted and dumb, and you're just another dickhead playing partisan politics.

I thought it was Bob Dole's job to sell wood, but hey, whatever...I think the majority of us scratched our heads when Kerry mumbled something about Bush owning a timber business, but leave it to FactCheck to tell us that it's indeed true.

Unfortunately, there are times when the truth is not as compelling as staying on message and when Kerry said that, he kind of deflated.

While I'm here, one thing I'd like to say is that I'm sick and tired of hearing about the middle class. Hey, I'm part of it and all, but you know, it's not supposed to be your end result. The middle class, the middle of anything for that matter is not supposed to be where you stop. It's a moment in the journey, and not the destination.

I'd much rather hear any candidate talk about how they're going to clear the path so we can all move from the middle class into something greater. I haven't heard that yet from the two major party robo-candidates.

I love the new Juicy Fruit commercial where the CPR Dummy comes to life. Props to which ever ad agency came up with it because it caught me by surprise when I first saw it, and it's just as good on repeated viewings.

So I haven't been posting much lately, but that's because we were super-busy at MortgageRamp doing many things. During a moment of break, I looked at the market for computer programmers and I saw a position with another company, and I took it. I'm excited. MortgageRamp was tough on me, and good for me, and I learned a lot, most notably my shortcomings, as seems to be the trend with me, and I hope to take that knowledge and move on to better things.

But the last couple of days have been a vacation for me and that's been nice. I'm relaxed, and I feel that I'm close to ready to tackle my new position. I'll let you know how it goes.

I guess that makes him a liar.

So I've been consuming media from the poisoned wells of both major political party, and something I've been hearing a lot of lately is John Edwards' Two Americas. Something about that really nagged at me, tugged at some parts of my brain, but I never really paid it any mind until this morning when I was up at 6am with my son watching "The Al Franken Show" on Sundance On Demand.

This talk about a rich America and a poor America, the haves and the have-nots, and taking from the rich to give to the poor is Marxist. Think about it for a second. Edwards is saying that there's a bourgeoisie and a proletariat, and that he's fighting for the proletariat.

If you don't believe me, read this quote pulled from Wikipedia about Marxism:

Marxists believe that capitalist society is divided into two powerful social classes:

the working class or proletariat: Marx defined this class as "those individuals who sell their labor and do not own the means of production" whom he believed were responsible for creating the wealth of a society (buildings, bridges and furniture, for example, are physically built by members of this class).
the bourgeoisie : those who "own the means of production" and exploit the proletariat. The bourgeoisie may be further subdivided into the very wealthy bourgeoisie and the petty bourgeoisie: those who employ labor, but may also work themselves. These may be small proprietors, land-holding peasants, or trade workers. Marx predicted that the petty bourgeoisie would eventually be destroyed by the constant reinvention of the means of production and the result of this would be the force movement of the vast majority of the petty bourgeoisie to the proletariat. An example of this would be many small business giving way to fewer larger ones.

Now, read what John Edwards had to say when he introducted his idea of "Two Americas":

Today, under George W. Bush, there are two Americas, not one: One America that does the work, another America that reaps the reward. One America that pays the taxes, another America that gets the tax breaks. One America that will do anything to leave its children a better life, another America that never has to do a thing because its children are already set for life. One America -- middle-class America - whose needs Washington has long forgotten, another America - narrow-interest America - whose every wish is Washington's command. One America that is struggling to get by, another America that can buy anything it wants, even a Congress and a President.

They're the SAME idea!

And we're going to vote a Marxist into power? No way. Absolutely not. I can't even begin to think that people would willingly be duped into voting into power a person who advocates, who espouses, who preaches the very philosophy we spent the previous 50 years fighting against. The same ideology that we built a giant military and massive stockpiles of nuclear weapons to defend ourselves from. A way of thinking that we were so against that elected leaders like Reagan to defend us against it.

It's madness, and all the more so because NO ONE, NO ONE has said so much as a word against the idea. This hurts my head.

So, all of these news organizations are running their own polls to see who the people think won the debate last week. (Here's a link to CNN's).

Here's the thing that struck me today. I don't care who won that debate, because either way, Bush or Kerry, we, the American people are the losers. We all lost in that process because:
1. It was only the two major parties that got to debate, and no 3rd party candidates, which means we have no real choice. Bush or Kerry is like botulism vs. ptomaine. I don't know which is which, but both are slowly poisoning us.

2. All of this focus on lecterns, body language, turns of phrase, etc mean almost nothing about who gets elected in November. It's all about who can get more party faithful out on Election Day. These debates are just so much electoral masturbation. The people voting are not going to be swayed by what they saw. Republicans hated Kerry, Democrats hated Bush. Let's move on.

The only thing that I can in earnest about the debates is that we've finally got the candidates talking about policy issues and what they want to do. At least, they're kind of approaching the subject...from afar...with baby steps...oh screw it.

It was basically garbage anyway. But like some political car wreck junkie, I'm still going to watch all of them.

Today's winner of the "Thanks for Nothing Award" goes to the FDA for the whole Vioxx mess. We spend years without vital cures, and the pharamceutical companies spend billions getting drugs approved by the FDA, under the pretense that it makes drugs more safe and will prevent people from getting hurt by bad drugs.

I'd like to thank the FDA, then, for their vigilant work on saving people from getting hurt by Vioxx...oh shit...uhm, for saving people from getting hurt on Paxil...no, Serzone...uhm...well then

Come now people, isn't it obvious that the purported purpose of the FDA is not being met, and that what they are doing instead is obstructing people from getting the medication they do need? Think about it for a second. When the FDA comes out and says "Today we approved a drug that will save 20,000 people a year", aren't they really saying "Because we've held onto this drug for 10 years, we've killed 200,000 people"?

I believe that there are many more effective ways to test drugs for safety that are more expedient and more transparent than the current system we go through. Imagine if there were a Consumer Reports or a Underwriter's Laboratory for drugs that tested them and approved them. You could choose who to believe, and the drug companies could speed viable cures to market faster, saving more lives. Improving the quality of more lives, helping more people in pain.

No, instead we've got a system that doesn't work that sucks money out of our pockets and still lets people get hurt.

What a crock.

Everyone's spinning the debate, but who's giving you what really matters: the reviews of the post-debate analysis? That's why I'm here for you folks.

Let's get it on:
FoxNews: Full-bodied and rich up front with a weak finish. A panel of four in the studio with a fox anchor (sorry, I don't remember who, it was late and I was tired), they really weighed in heavy with the insightful analysis of things like "Who Filled Up The Screen" and the qualities of the individual lecterns. Wow. At some point, Tommy Franks came on and droned about some lake in Afghanistan and Preperation H, or something. I didn't quite get it. Extra points to them for reminding me every few seconds that the Terror Alert Level is: Elevated.

ABC News: Weak and bland. I only took a few sips before I left in search of something more interesting, like my cat sleeping. Oh look, he rolled over. Wasn't that exciting? Wow he did it again. Oh, did Peter Jennings say somethin...oh look, shiny object.

CNN: Fruity and brash, but with only a hint of body. I'm not sure what they thought with having their analysts sit in front of the crowd leaving the debates, which meant that Wolf Blitzer, in an effort to be heard, was practically SCREAMING! IN! MY! LIVING! ROOM! 10.30pm, the last thing you want is him hollering at you. It's also hard to focus on what's being said when the most interesting thing is how it's being delivered. That's why no one watches The Naked News for their content. Aside from the that, there was nothing of note to see here. Moving along...

CBS News: Exotic and exciting. I enjoyed the fact that CBS was able to give us the real story about what was happening after the debates, namely, the full-scale riot in the streets of Coral Gables, FL. Getting to see Democrats and Republicans rumble like the Jets and the Sharks was fantastic. "When you're a dem, you're a dem all the way, from your first welfare check to your dying day". Problem was, after a few minutes, the whole thing felt manufactured, not authentic. I can't quite place my finger on the problem, but it was there.

Also, it was great to see CBS trying to restore some of it's credibility by having Edward R. Murrow reporting again. I had heard he'd died in 1965, but doctors these days can do wonderful things.

The Daily Show: Bright, sparkly, amusing. This was the analysis that had it all. It was funny, insightful, interesting, and entertaining. It had some depth to it, without being too heavy. I find it interesting that what's supposed to be the equivalent of a $2 cooking wine comes out ahead of the other contenders. It wasn't much of a contest folks, but I declare the Daily Show the winner!

Special Notes: Wesley Clark's plan to clone himself is going apparently very well as he was on everyone's show. The bad news is the Mayor Giuliani must have snuck into the cloning chamber too, since I couldn't get him of off my TV either. It got so bad that when I turned off the TV, the images of Clark and Giuliani were burned into the tube on my TV. The ghostly melded faces looks frighteningly like an old Eddie Munster.

Thanks for coming, and have a good day!