"The Runaway Train Is On Fire"

Just one reason why California governments are going broke.

Story is here.

Randoms And A Crazy Cat Lady

I do not know if George Zimmerman should have been arrested that fateful night or not, but I do believe that there are people who need need to be arrested now.
Saying "Sorry" just doesn't cut it in this case.

To the north... in a cost cutting move, Canada has raised it's retirement age to 67. We've already done that, and we still have a problem. We can't cut our way out of this one. We need to breed our way out, or we are screwed.
Time to ban contraception. The future of the republic demands it. Don't laugh. If drafting men's bodies for war in defense of the republic is doable, why not drafting women's uterus's? Or is it uteri?

If you haven't seen "Winter's Bone" yet, why not?

The next round of electioneering in California will feature a increase on cigarettes. An additional $1.10 per pack, supposedly to fund 'cancer research'. Seeing how much of the money voted to combat Global Warming ended up in the pockets of politicians (Yes, even Arnold made bank on it), I suspect the funds for this one to meet the same fate.
Still, the anti-tax-raising climate in California is so toxic right now, even a tax on smokes, which used to be a slam dunk in days gone by, may not happen. This is good thing.
California is screwed in many ways, but before there was the Tea Party, Californians were holding Tea Party-like rallies every weekend. Some things we can get right.

Obamacare: the question isn't it defeat, but how badly.

This story (by the way, I know where this is, not too far from where I used to live) brings to mind my early days and the pizza delivery job I had (loved it, actually).
There was an apartment I used to deliver to once a week, maybe more.
The woman who lived there was mid to late 20's maybe, always wore cutoff shorts, a bikini top and nothing else.
She not only tipped well, but she was hot. Smoking hot.
The level of hot where we would send newbies to that address and they would return with talk of her hotness, and the... well, I'm getting to that...
The only drawback was her cat fetish. Not exaggerating... I once counted over 20 cats in the living room with the door open. Who knows how many were hiding out of sight, or in the other rooms.
I had already trained myself to ring the bell and step back from the door because the stench was enough to knock you on your ass.
Awefulbad is the best word I have for it.
When I see/read stories like this I have to to wonder about the level of mental illness these folks must be suffering...
And if that ultra-hot perfect-body babe ever found a man.

She lost control, kinda like that crazy cat lady.

Two Cents

"If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon."

Parts Is Still Parts

In light of Dick Cheney receiving a heart transplant, and the news that due to his age he waited a bit longer than he ordinarily should have, and that many others will not receive hearts in time to save their lives, I am rerunning a post from a previous time because the issue is still relevant.

Organ donations have been the news recently. Most alarmingly, the new policy in Great Britain that allows hospitals to take organs without consent. This is wrong on more than one level, but without getting into these specifics at this time I want to propose an alternative: Organ selling.

For starters, let's talk kidneys.
Currently, sixteen people die in the United States every day while awaiting a kidney transplant. Good kidneys are not, and should not be, rare to find. Everybody is born with two good ones, and only one kidney is necessary to sustain life.So,yeah, there's all these spare parts walking around and no really good reason for sixteen deaths everyday.
The issue then, is not one of limited supply, but one of supply and demand. Generally, some healthy soul assumes room temperature, and then the medical staff comes out, like vultures circling a fresh kill, and attempts to persuade the grieving family to part with some parts:
"So sorry your child is dead. Can we have this?"
or,
"Before we pull the plug, we want something for nothin."
Morbid.

If families, or even individuals, were allowed to sell their kidneys, more kidneys would become available. Money is a great motivator. How many surviving families could benefit if they could get a sizable lump of cash after Daddy dies in a tragic accident,leaving his kids without the support of a father? Or, somebody struggling in poverty could offer up one of their spare kidneys to somebody with the means to save themselves while also helping out another?

Now, before you go and turn all "Two Americas" on me about how 'the rich' will benefit off 'the poor', let me inform you: our current system of donation already favors the wealthy and the famous. Celebrities routinely move to the front of the organ line. This is not a not a secret to the mildly informed. And the wealthy, but not so famous, travel to third world nations like India to receive organs on the open market.

I don't know about you, but if a family member could procure an organ for a price, I wouldn't hesitate to drain my savings and mortgage my home to save their life.
Add in the charity factor of neighbors, co-workers, or church groups, and nobody will go without.
As it stands now, I am forbidden from doing so as I do not have the means to go abroad, or a government that will allow this basic freedom.

Right here, right now, in what is bragged of as the freest of nations, everybody makes money from organ donations except for the supplier of the organs. We need to change this.

Sure, we could adopt the European-socialist-serfdom model that says you and your body are not your own, but wards of the state instead, to serve a greater good according to, and defined by, the The Powers.
Or we could solve our organ shortage in a manner that respects individual freedoms and personal sovereignty.

Stuff

"I'm not from the South!"
It happens every so often that somebody at work will make a reference to my being from the South.
I was born in Chicago.
Moved to California before I was three.
I have never lived in the South.
What the hell is it about me that passes for a Southerner I have no idea.

Half of a pipeline is not a pipeline. Kinda like a garden hose, you need to hook it up to a source at the other end if you expect anything out of it. But I guess with just the right teleprompter settings you might be able to fool enough of the people who are inclined to agree with you anyway.

Through no fault of their own, some people know not what they do. Is this why they offer free contraception in Sweden?
I give the defense a 'B' for originality. A+ if they pull it off.

Been hearing a bit about this "Hunger Games" movie. The word is that it's going to be the biggest thing this year. Maybe, maybe not.
What I do know is that it stars Jennifer Lawrence in a big way.
Yeah, Jennifer Lawrence, who became one of my favorite actresses after turning out one of my favorite performances in what is still one of the best films I have ever seen: Winter's Bone.
If you haven't already taken my excellent film watching advice, now would be a good time to do yourself proper and see it.
View the trailer here.

Stupid Does

More Employers Asking for Facebook Passwords

Studies have shown that Facebook can be a useful hiring tool. Just a 5-
to 10-minute perusal of a user’s profile can net more information than a basic
personality test. It’s no wonder employers head to the site to check out
prospective hires.

It's been twenty years since I last looked for work. For my current job, besides the aptitude testing and drug screen, the company also did a background check. According to them, it was mainly to see my criminal or arrest record. It was also explained that no one thing would disqualify me from employment, but was an attempt to keep the really bad dudes out.

I wasn't worried about any of this.
Ditto present day with Facebook. There is nothing there.
I generally operate with the idea of not putting anything on Facebook that would be inappropriate for my youngest nephew to see or my mother to witness.

Still, if a potential employer asked to see my Facebook page, I would most likely be a tad peeved. But would I allow it?
Let me put it this way: When the rent is past due and the cupboards are bare, who would say "No."?
The answer to that is easy: Somebody who is stupid enough to brag the seedier sides of his (or hers, If Your Name Is Amanda) lifestyle online.

So what would you do?
Have you ever had this inquiry posed to you?
What did you do about it?

Seeking Justice

It's been a long time since I've seen a Nicholas Cage movie that was worth it. Cage on the billing is usually a sign of sure suckage, yet I appreciate "Wild At Heart" and "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" enough to keep holding out hope that he can do worthy stuff should he pull his head out of his ass.

He does his reputation some small justice in Seeking Justice. It's purely a Cage vehicle with the of the cast are merely along for the ride.

Cage plays a high school English teacher who moonlights as a chess nerd. He's enjoying his quiet life when a brutal rape attack on his wife shatters his tranquility.Upset and shaken to his foundation with grief, he is approached by a stranger who offers to have the attacker properly dealt with in exchange for a favor or two down the road to help the secretive 'organisation', who's sole mission is to see to it that a certain class of evil-doers receive adequate justice.

Thus begins a thriller tale of twists and turns, leading our protagonist onto a path where he does not want to go, uncovering the nasty backside of The Organisation, finding himself on the hit list.

It's not the best movie of it's type, but it's the best I've seen in a while. Seeing Nicholas Cage turn in an adequate performance for a change is a plus.

I don't know how President and Mrs. Obama thought they were going to send their thirteen-year old daughter to Mexico for Spring Break (without a parent? Not sure if maybe Grandma is chaperoning) after his State Department told everybody else not to travel to Mexico due to safety concerns.

Malia might be the popular kid in her school after taking 12 friends along for the (free?, IDK) ride, but her father's popularity rating isn't doing as well. This event sure as hell isn't helping.

Irish Smirish

Somewhere in Canada, a very long, long time ago, a Scottish catholic named Sarah married Thomas, an Irish protestant turned Catholic. As history would have it, they both passed way too soon, leaving two small children in the care of Thomas' brother, who moved his now-expanded family to Chicago.
My great-grandfather, Angus, was therefore raised as a stereotypical Irish, 'cept he rarely drank.
Angus married an french woman with a Metis background, and brought forth twelve children.
Angus claimed to be full Irish (how he pulled it off with a Scot first name is another question I have no answer to). He was proud of that Irish thing.
His first born, my Grandmother, who at this stretch of the gene pool was only 25% Irish blood, claimed full Irishness.
Why she even attempted to pull this off with a French speaking mother, I do not know. But she did.
She also tried to pull the same stunt on her own kids, my mother being one of them.
Mom wised up when she got old enough to realize that both of her grandmothers routinely conversed in French. With each other.
So where did the French come from?
Grandma's response was always something like: Shut up, yer Irish!
Grandpa's (full French/Metis) response was: "the Irish part of you is the dark spot below yer ass cheeks." (Direct quote. I'd heard this from his mouth many times while growing up.)

So there it is.
I am 1/32 Irish blood, depsite Grandma's insistence that I, too, am Irish (and don't you forget it). Part-Irish wasn't allowed/didn't exist, regardless of where my dad came from.
(At one point, my Dad explained that it was how peeing in the pool ruined every gallon. But not to worry, Calabrese blood worked like chlorine.)

I never quite got on with this Irish Pride thing. From when I was old enough to know better, I'd look around and see what manifested as 'Irishness', becoming less impressed the older I got. Let them have it, 'cause I don't need it.

Irish? Yeah, whatever...
On this day, I want to profess that I love St Patrick. In his honor, I did this morning what I do every year when his day rolls around: reflected upon his life, his work, and what I could do to be a better spiritual being.
He wasn't Irish, and I don't have to be either.
Then I cooked corned beef and cabbage to honor Grandma, called Mom and my kids and spoke of those who came before that I never got to know, just like I have done every St Patrick's day for as long as I can remember... and that's a mighty long time.

It's better than getting shit-faced-obnoxious in the name of Pride.

Capchas

Disable them. Please.

I've been capcha free for weeks, and have not received one bot comment. You can do it. You can be like me. Become capcha-free!

I'm Ready For Some Football

For those of you who have been sleeping all week, the big news out of Chicago is the trade for Brandon Marshall.
OK, I really do not know what the big news is out of Chicago. I haven't passed through there in 18 months, and haven't lived there since 1967. This is about what I think should be the big news out of Chicago, coming from my Chicago Bears Fan perspective.

I was clamoring for the Bears to make a play for Marshall way back when he was requesting a trade way from the Broncos (when they traded Jay Cutler to the Bears.) I clamored again when he was traded to the Dolphins. Even Jay was bringing up his name. Thankfully, Chicago tossed their sucky GM and replaced him with somebody who made it happen.

Brandon Marshall and Jay Cutler have been reunited. Let the magic happen.

We also signed a proven Quarterback in Jason Campbell to compete for the backup position. Personally, I was hoping for David Gerard, Kyle Orton or Donovan McNabb, but Campbell should work out just fine. What matters is that the Bears will have a proven and sufficient backup should Cutler go down.

Another plus, no more spent Cowboys on the team this year. Last year we brought in three. None of whom will be on the roster this year.
Now, just get some O-line and an early receiver in the draft and the Bears should be looking good this year.

On a down note: I liked Kyle Orton as a Bear. I rooted for his success every where he went after he was traded (unless he was playing the Bears). This year, he has signed to backup Tony Romo with the Cowboys. Sorry. I just can't cheer for that.

The Emperess strikes back.

Wish It Was Me

Two Akron men slapped with charges after stealing a couple's dog.
Why does crime like this only happen to other people?

Tomorrow Is Too Late

US soldier kills Afghan civilians in Kandahar

A US soldier in Afghanistan has killed at least 16 civilians and wounded five after entering their homes in Kandahar province, senior local officials say.

It's time to leave now.

Dumb As A Rock

As it turned out, I hunted zero rabbits the other day. My buddy Ed had a car problem, so I spent my morning creeping through his shop armed with a flashlight and stalking dropped bolts, screws, and sockets, handing over screw drivers and whatever else he dropped next. And cracking jokes.

We found out the hard way that if you depress the clutch on this vehicle, the battery and starter work just fine and may not need fixing. Go ahead. Laugh.

Want to know what's funnier than that? This.

It's a pretty unusual sight to see crowds gather on the streets here after 1 a.m. — almost as unusual as a 340-ton boulder rolling through town.

The rock – dubbed “Levitated Mass” and one of the most photographed celebrities in Southern California – gathered a following of about 60 people early Tuesday as it passed through La Palma on a circuitous path that will end at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. There, the rock will become part of a permanent exhibit.

Yeah. It's a fucking rock.
Being moved at great expense to an art museum. For display.
Can't make this shit up.
Somewhere, I read about it costing $20 million to move this thing 100 miles. All donated money, or something like that.
That's a lot of money that can be better spent providing contraceptives to 20,000 immature Ivy League snowflakes coeds for a year. What a waste.

So you got this, right?
A rock.
They are placing a rock on the lawn of an art museum and calling it 'Art'.

To me, "Art" would be, oh, maybe something that involved creative talent and imagination... along the line of replicating the image/shape of a rock using paper mache, or drawing a picture, or even taking a pretty picture of a rock using a camera.

What they are doing here is called "landscaping".
For some reason, it's a newsworthy event around these parts when it's done by people with more dollars than sense.

News Of The Weird

It's good to see that Pat Robertson has endorsed the legalisation of marijuana. Who knew? Yes, a very old, warn out dog can indeed learn a new trick.

"I really believe we should treat marijuana the way we treat beverage alcohol..."
"The whole thing is crazy. We've said, 'Well, we're conservatives, we're tough on crime.' That's baloney."

My low opinion of him just got a little less lower.
Conservatism means 'less use of' in regards to government. He finally gets it, or part of it, anyway.

Christian advocacy group Focus on the Family opposes legalization for medical for recreational use, Carrie Gordon Earll, the organization's senior director of government and public policy, said in a statement.

Because nothing says 'Christian Love' like denying medicine to chemo patients, right? It's in their Bible. It's not in mine. Maybe we need a an Official Bible to sort this stuff out.

In other news, Israel wants the USA to send them 'bunker buster' bombs to attack Iran with. For a supposedly 'independent' state, they don't flinch when it comes to taking handouts, do they? If they attack Iran, it will be the same as if we did it for them, since we supplied the means, and probably free of charge to boot.
Beggars gonna beg, I guess.
Be ready for this... these guys are gonna open up a world of hurt for us that we will regret if we don't check them.

I don't know what is so wrong about a lottery winner getting food stamps when we have 30-year old, 1%er lawyers expecting the government to to support their sex lives.
I'd say eating is far more important to women's health than fucking.
But I'm a man.
What do I know?

Did you hear about the wild turkey that is terrorizing an old lady?
What's this world coming to? Now even the turkey's have attitudes.
Personally, I prefer my Wild Turkeys in 750ml bottles, but setting them into a roasting pan works, too.

Ya know what's even weirder? California's presidential primary might actually mean something. For the first time in my life, my vote, should I choose to use it, might matter.
It's a little much for a California conservative's mind to comprehend at this point.
I have yet to register. Maybe I will.

Finally, after weeks of delay, I'm going rabbit hunting in the morning. Gonna stuff that damn Puddy cat in the shed this time. With any luck I'll get some for myself.
Will keep you posted.

One more thing: Close your eyes. Totally SFW
If this don't bring you to tears then you have no soul. I'm just saying...

Ugh!

Middle School Teacher Is Placed On Leave After Students Discover Her P0rn Past
No, I won't link to it. You can get it yourself off of Drudge.

(Name redacted by me), a 31-year-old science teacher at Richard B. Haydock Intermediate School in Oxnard, was removed from the classroom Monday, three days after pupils reported spotting her in a series of X-rated clips.

“Maybe it's not a crime as far as the penal code is concerned, but we feel it's a crime as far as moral turpitude is concerned,” said Jeff Chancer, superintendent of the Oxnard school district.

In a letter sent yesterday to Haydock parents, school brass noted that they are “asking teachers to discourage the children from searching for and/or visiting these inappropriate sites. We ask that you be particularly vigilant over the next few days with respect to the Internet content being accessed by your child on his or her telephone or other Internet-ready device.”

The big issue for society is not the teacher's p0rn past but that middle-school age kids have cell phones and internet access to p0rnographic sites.
Somebody has to be cruising a lot of videos to find an uncanny resemblance to a science teacher, if you ask me. Coincidence maybe? I don't know. Maybe somebody tipped off somebody else.
But now it's out there in the eyes of all these kids.

What the hell are the parents doing now days besides not keeping a leash or two on their young child's access to adult material?

Some Of Where I'm From

I'm still a little amused at some of the surprises I run into online, and the digital age makes anybody a videographer if they want to claim it.

I don't know who this creator is, but I'm liking this episode.
I grew up just five blocks away and Josie's tacos were a part of the regular diet.
The best ever? Quite possibly as I've never had a better one.



Another thing... that building in the background with all the windows at 4:26 is a liquor store I used to work at. One of my earliest jobs.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho...

It's off to work I go.

This morning was the first day back for me since I left gasping for air sometime late July... after surgery delays of three months, and then the doctor ordered three months of 'avoiding all strenuous activity', followed by a month of activity to get back into form.

Lying around and doing nothing but eating, watching television, cruising the interwebs, and drinking beer (to kill the boredom of doing nothing) has taken it's toll in the form of 15lbs around the waistline that weren't there last July.

I've damn near lost what was left of my mind in this short time while gaining insights as to why some dudes who retire with nothing to do end up dead within a few years. Luckily, I was given the go ahead to 'work it' in late January. I'm tellin ya... just in time.

So, after a 4-5 weeks of long walks and jumping rope (to get the heart rate pumping again), I reported for duty.
In this case, 'duty' means showing up at the clinic for a return-to-work physical which consists of the company hired doc asking things like "How ya feel?", and little else.
He remembered me from a year ago.... "Oh, I remember you. You could hardly talk last time. Yeah, sounding a lot better! How'd it go? yadda yadda..."
He's a decent guy. Grew up on a farm in the midwest. His brother is an ENT, so he took a particular interest in my set of issues.

Oh, and pissing in a jar. I never understood why. The reasoning makes no sense to me. If I'm going to be using illegal substances, what difference does it make if I'm using them while on disability or not?
Yet, the company is forbidden to randomly test me any other time, but feels obligated to test me upon return to work from an extended absence.

As it goes, since they have reason to suspect that I may be on drugs (that is why I am tested), I am forbidden to enter the production floor until I am cleared via the piss test.
In the meantime, I am 'on the clock' so to speak, until my test results come back, usually in about 4-5 days. I'll play along since it's their money (and mine, now).
What is also my money: Whatever overtime the person who serves in my place gets paid. It's already 2hrs worth, just for Monday.
Go for it.
I'll wait as long as it takes.
Two years ago, another co-worker's results sat on a desk for 3 weeks before somebody got around to noticing and calling him in for duty. They had to pay him for that. Plus overtime. Laugh Out Loud, eh? It's their policy.

I only half-hope that they lose my results 'cause I can't handle another week at home.

Shout Out

The Lumberjack's humor streak has been on a roll the past few days.

CALWOP?

California initiative to abolish the state's death penalty will be on November's ballot.

A group hoping to replace the state’s death penalty with life in prison with no chance of parole submitted signature petitions Thursday to place the measure on the November ballot.

The group, which calls itself Savings, Accountability, Full Enforcement or SAFE – reports that it submitted 800,000 signatures. A total of 504,760 must be found to be valid for the initiative to qualify.

The group has lined up some impressive backers, including the author of the state’s current death penalty law, a former San Quentin warden, and one of the advocates of the state’s 1978 death penalty initiative.

I will be voting in favor of this measure.

Recent Blogger changes really suck. Can I get  "Hell yeah!"?

Anne Frank Is A Mormon

The Mormon faith holds that unless one has been properly baptised into the faith, the deceased's soul cannot enter into the highest levels of salvation.

This would really seem to suck if the deceased was born after Joseph Smith recieved the revelation, seemingly being left out no matter how well the life was lived.

This is where the Mormon doctrine of Proxy-Baptism comes into play.

Basically, it means that any Mormon in good standing with the church may submit himself for baptismal rites in the name of a deceased non-Mormon relative, thereby conferring the graces of baptism onto them.

Nothing is automatic. It gives the spirit of the deceased the option to become a Mormon in the afterlife, should they so chose to accept it.

Of course, if you are a dead non-Mormon who only realised after death that Mormonism was The True Way, you would accept this gift happily.

(By extension, if Mormonism really does suck, no harm/no foul, right?) This also explains why Mormons are so genealogy obsessed. It's really important to their faith and practice.

Now, on to the gist, shall we?

Claim surfaces of Anne Frank baptism by Mormons

And to be expected, somewhere in this story is an angry Jew or two...

Mormon church has posthumously baptized a Holocaust victim, this time Anne Frank. The allegations come just a week after The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints apologized when it was brought to light that the parents of Holocaust survivor and Jewish rights advocate Simon Wiesenthal were posthumously baptized by church members at temples in Arizona and Utah in late January.

Researcher Helen Radkey, a former Mormon who revealed the Wiesenthal baptisms, said this week she found Frank's name in proxy baptism records dated Feb. 18, showing the ritual was performed in the Santo Domingo Temple in the Dominican Republic.

If you are a Jew, you should believe that the Mormon faith is a bogus pile of bogusness.

At least, that is what I assume being a non-Mormon myself. If I thought it was all good, I wouldn't be a non-Mormon, right?

So Jews, what's your issue?

It was a baptismal rite of no consequence.

In other words... nothing happened.

If anything, it shows that a Mormon relative somewhere felt enough love in his heart for a Jewish relative that he never knew, and wanted to give to her the bestest, greatest gift he was capable of: the gift of Heavenly Salvation.

To a Jew. A non-Jew loved a Jew.

This is not an act of anti-semitism, but anti-semitism in reverse.

An act of charity and love.

Get over yourself, already.  

And here comes the Mormon church taking away their Jewishness,

Oh, shuddup!
Your offense is a direct offense against Mormons.

Dare you to ever preach 'tolerance' to me again, you hypocrite bastard.

The Mormon church doesn't exactly lend credibility to their own faith either:

"The Church keeps its word and is absolutely firm in its commitment to not accept the names of Holocaust victims for proxy baptism,"

Right.

The Mormons are so convinced of their faith, yet will bend to political-religious pressure, depriving rightous spirits of their just rewards from God.

First it was "Blacks are not cool before, but now they are". The logical/theological explanation for the change in Black's coolness might fly with some, but it always seemed to be a stretch for me...

Now it's "Jews are cool, unless they died for being Jews".

I'd love to hear the theological explanation for that one.