Pitiful Apology

04. March 2012 · Comments Off · Categories: Opinion, Rants

It is about the most pitiful apology I have ever heard. My mother would never have let me get away with it nor would I have let my children get away with it.

I am talking—of course—about the non-apology apology. Specifically the alleged apology made by Rush “the slut” Limbaugh to Sandra Fluke, who was just trying to testify to Congress; to a bunch of men only; about women’s issues; and who did not want to hear what she had to say. At least the Democrats invited her back to speak to them despite the fact that the Republicans still do not want to hear her.

Rush apologized. But not for calling her a “slut” and a “prostitute.” No, he apologized only for selecting those specific words.

So Rush, what words would you have used to call Ms. Fluke those things? Would that have made it any better? Would it have been different in any way? Perhaps, if you had used different words your sponsors would not be pulling out. Is that what you are sorry for? The loss of income? Would using different words have enabled you to call her a “slut” and a “prostitute” while keeping your sponsors?

And this does not even begin to cover Rush and the other morons telling women to put aspirin between their knees to prevent pregnancy. Why don’t we just cut off your penis instead—if it can be found?

Rush’s comments are disgusting, reprehensible, filthy, slanderous (I would sue if I were Ms. Fluke), and so far out of the realm of reasonable discourse that he should be taken off the air permanently. At the very least he and the network and every station that carries his show should be fined. This venomous attack is so much more obscene than the occasional language on TV or even the “wardrobe malfunctions” that leave folks thinking they might have seen something, that it deserves significant punishment.

Are you there, FCC?

If you want to help prevent this monster from airing more malignant sewage, here are a couple web sites that tell which companies sponsor him so that you can boycott them write them letters.

Stand up to the morons.

GOP Fights Tax Cuts—For the Rest of Us

22. August 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Commentary, Economy, Politics, Rants

The GOP — That’s Greedy Old Poops to you — is now fighting against the very thing they campaigned for:  tax cuts.

But these aren’t tax cuts for the grossly rich, which they still defend vigorously and will gladly destroy the economy to protect. These are tax cuts for the people that need them the most. They want to let expire an existing tax cut for regular working folks.

To quote from the article in today’s News & Observer:

Many of the Republicans who fought hammer-and-tong to keep the George W. Bush-era income tax cuts from expiring on schedule are now saying a different “temporary” tax cut should end on Jan. 1 as planned.

The tax break extension they oppose is sought by President Barack Obama. Unlike proposed changes in the income tax, this policy helps the 46 percent of Americans who owe no federal income taxes but who pay a “payroll tax” on practically every dime they earn.

There are other differences as well, and Republicans say their stand is consistent with their goal of long-term tax policies that will spur employment and lend greater certainty to the economy.

“It’s always a net positive to let taxpayers keep more of what they earn,” says Rep. Jeb Hensarling, “but not all tax relief is created equal for the purposes of helping to get the economy moving again.” The Texas lawmaker is on the House GOP leadership team.

This bozo is using typical Republican convoluted illogic to contradict himself in a single sentence. Please, Jeb, explain to us how tax cuts for the poor and middle class is so different from tax cuts for the grotesquely rich.

Apparently voodoo economics is like  voodoo science. Can you say “There is no global warming?” When repeated frequently enough by idiotic, wacko talk show hosts and moronic, power hungry politicians, makes it true in the minds of the . . . idiots and morons who say it.

And like second-hand smoke, which has been banned in many places, it poisons many who have to listen to it too frequently as well.

So the Greedy Old Poops think that tax cuts for the obscenely rich are the only ones that can help “get the economy moving again.”  How can you people live with yourselves?

I just love it! The Greedy Old Poops think it is OK for the super-rich to get or keep tax cuts, but not for the rest of us. Did you vote for these <place disparaging name of your choice here, such as shitheads> because you thought that they would cut your taxes? I sure didn’t.

Read the complete N&O article below, but do so at your own risk. It will increase your blood pressure and put you at risk of a stroke — which you can’t afford to get treated thanks to the damn Republicans. I sure could use some Obamacare right now.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/08/22/1427548/gop-fights-tax-cut-that-obama.html#ixzz1Vl6Lq1oh

Dump the Trump!

27. April 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Commentary, Opinion, Politics, Rants

**PRESIDENT** Obama released his long form birth certificate today so bozos like Trump cannot complain about him not being a citizen anymore. Well some will complain anyway but they are clearly too stupid to think for themselves.

But without the “birther” crap for ammunition, Trump is now saying that he wants to see PRESIDENT Obama’s grades because he does not think the PRESIDENT was smart enough to get into Harvard Law School.

Here is an interesting article by my Representative in Congress, Democrat Brad Miller. I intend to hold another house party to support him for 2012.

“Dump the Trump”

Aren’t You Ready to Try Linux Yet?

14. August 2010 · Write a comment · Categories: Linux, Opinion, Rants

I use Linux on all of my personal computers. Whether on my NetBook, my very old Dell laptop, my much newer ThinkPad, to my personal workstation and my email and web servers, Linux runs them all.

I am forced to use Windoze on my laptop at work, despite the fact that my job is a Linux Engineer. Go figure.

But every day I use Winblows at work is another day that I am thankful I have Linux at home; primarily because of the daily frustration of using a crappy operating system. Windows 7 is supposed to be better, but it does not take much to be better than before. Just because you are happy with it due to the fact that it is now better, does not make it good; it only means you probably don’t know what a good operating system is.

Well, this did not start out to be a rant but that is what it has turned into. I guess it is all the frustration from being forced to use it at work. My original point was to be that there is an interesting article about switching from Windows to Linux for your desktop.

Read the article here: This is your Brain on Linux Desktop

Don’t let my rant stop you from trying Linux. Or perhaps you should not try it at all. Things this good, like Linux, should really be kept for only those who are wise enough to use it; after all what could be better than something that costs nothing and works better than anything similar for which you could pay any amount of money?

Stimulus and Spend

07. February 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Politics, Rants

Yes, republicans, it IS a spending bill. DUH!

The entire purpose of a stimulus package is for the government to spend money  — lots of money — in order to stimulate the economy. The money goes to fund projects that put people back to work. People who work then spend the money, further stimulating the economy and causing more spending.

Of course the republicans seem compulsively obsessed with their pet tax cuts. I understand that some tax cuts may help the economy, but most of us down here on the front lines of the economy understand that we have to work in order to pay taxes in order to be eligible for a tax cut! If one is not working, and therefore not paying taxes, how does a tax cut help us as individuals? Answer me that.

And don’t go telling us about the national debt. We had a very comfortable surplus going into the last republican administration and after eight years of republican control and obstructionism we have a multi-trillion dollar debt. You guys put us here.

I also expect to see some true bipartisanship from the republican members of both houses of the congress. If you all continue your obstructionist tactics we will vote even more of you out of office. Richard Burr, you have only two more years. Why do you never respond to my calls and emails?

Greenway Cleanup Report

19. January 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Change is Here, Cleanup, Commentary, Rants

Alice and I, along with Vickie, our Barack Obama Change Crew Seven Leader, and her three girls worked on cleaning up the greenway near our house today as a service project for Martin Luther King day. We collected four large bags of trash in about ninety minutes, and due to the fact that there were only a few of us and so much trash we barely scratched the surface.

If you walk the greenway it will look a bit better because we managed to get much, but not all, of the trash close to the pedestrian walkway. Further away from the walkway we did not have enough people to do so, and we were unable to wade in the water to get much of the trash that was in the stream beds.

The Worst

Most of the trash we collected was near Durant Road Middle School. That area was a mess. Clearly the students are dumping trash and “other stuff” there between classes and during sporting events on the fields behind the school. The greenway runs behind the school on the far side of the athletic fields.

We found clothing, plastic bottles and aluminum cans, glass beer bottles, beer cans, cans and bottles which had been used as spittoons for chewing tobacco, used condoms, a bright red snow sled (which we commandeered to haul the trash away), plastic and foil bags, complete home packed lunches — lunch boxes included, newspapers, magazines, and much other assorted trash.

Perhaps a discussion with school authorities is in order and some sort of regular cleanup day would help the students understand that they need to be ecologically responsible. My brother and I suggested this when we were going to elementary school and it became a yearly event.

More Disgusting Stuff

Many dog walkers try to clean up after their animals and, as we walk the greenway most days, many of the people we see are carrying plastic bags with the dog poop that they have cleaned up. However some owners don’t clean up or even worse, collect the poop in bags and then throw the bags into the brush and the streams. The latter is the worst possible thing you can do!

If you are one of the morons that does this, please stop now!!! The plastic bags hurt the environment all by themselves, and they prevent the poop from being broken down and reused by nature. At least if your dog poops and you leave it, the poop will degrade and return to nature in a short period of time.

Frigid Restaurants

09. September 2008 · Write a comment · Categories: Rants

Why is it that so many of the restaurants in the Raleigh area are like meat lockers in the middle of summer? I bring this up because we are at the beach this week and the restaurants — and other stores — here seem to be able to maintain their temperatures in the comfort range for most humans. It is noticeable by comparison.

I do not understand how the owners of these places can be so stupid as to not realize how much money they can save and how many customers they can please just by adjusting the temperature up to a level that won’t freeze a penguin.

I have to ask most places we eat to turn up the temperature. Some places we don’t even go anymore because they are so cold. Is yours one of them? You will never know because you won’t ever see us again.

Downsizing Your Groceries

20. July 2008 · Write a comment · Categories: Rants

Going to the grocery store? Beware of the amounts you are paying for.

One thing I have noticed recently is that ice cream is now a 1.5 quart container for the same price as 1 – 2 years ago when it was 2 quarts. Noticed last week that 2 of the 5 sugar choices were now 4 pound bags when 5 used to be the standard. I also bought a box of cereal, which I don’t do very often as I usually get bulk granola. The box was smaller for the same amount of money and I only got four days out of it instead of six or seven.

Be sure to check your canned goods. A can of tuna-fish has only 75% as much tuna in it as it did 10 years ago in roughly the same size can.

This is like only purchasing a half-tank of gas because you don’t notice the pain as much when it comes in smaller amounts. You just do it more often. At least with gasoline you are making your own choice to stick your head in the sand; with the packaging sizes someone else has decided for you and you have to be aware.

Not that downsizing serving sizes is bad because many people — myself included — need to do that, so smaller portions in restaurants can be a good thing. They were getting truly out of hand because I could get a doggy bag and get one or even two more meals out of a single restaurant portion. And for the meat course at least, they sometimes tell you how many ounces you are paying for but never the veggies.

Less is More for Fedora 9

12. July 2008 · Write a comment · Categories: Linux, Rants

Last week I finally gave up totally on Fedora 9. Even after switching from KDE to GNOME I was constantly fighting with KDE applications which used to do the things I needed. Most of the applications were there, but they were either unfinished with many features missing, or the features worked poorly or were totally broken.

This is not a good state of affairs. Even though I am a super user and enjoy being on the bleeding edge, this was a hemorrhage, and I do still need to get work (and play) done and not fight the system constantly. I reinstalled Fedora 8 and am now much more productive and happy.

We can only hope that KDE returns to its former state of excellence.

Jobs, Economy, Parachutes and Big Business

13. April 2008 · Write a comment · Categories: Politics, Rants

Executives of poorly performing and criminally negligent companies rake in millions of dollars in bonuses and stock options not to mention grotesquely inflated salaries while they cut wages and benefits for U.S. workers and move many jobs overseas. At the same time they use offshore shell corporations to hide billions in income and profits so that they can evade U.S. income taxes.

Even the bozos who rip off a company and its shareholders, or who are just plain incompetent get away with golden parachutes worth tens to hundreds of millions of dollars and never have to be held accountable for their actions. We worker bees are held accountable when we spend $49.00 for a book we need to do our jobs. Is that fair – or even reasonable?

I have just one question: if all the meaningful and correspondingly well-paid jobs go overseas to where they can pay less, and the jobs remaining in the U.S. pay a pittance, who do these corporations think will purchase their products? No one will have the wherewithal to do so.

No wonder the economy is all screwed up. Can anyone fix it?

Gross Water Waste

04. February 2008 · Write a comment · Categories: Drought Blog of Shame, Environment, Politics, Rants

It seems as if Falls Valley Drive in North Raleigh is the center of a great deal of water wastage these days. On the way home from work today at 2:30pm I saw the most egregious instance so far. It is so bad that I am extremely angry about it.

A company called Carolina Pavement Cleaning Services Inc. had a water tanker truck parked in the parking lot of some new commercial construction going on behind the Rite-Aid pharmacy at I-540 and Falls of the Neuse Road.

Water tanker belonging to Carolina Pavement Cleaning Services Inc. spewing water.

This truck was connected to the city fire hydrant on Falls Valley Drive and was apparently refilling. There was no person from the company to monitor this truck and one of its valves was open and spewing water onto the parking lot pavement. A tremendous amount of water had already been spilled.

The rear of the tanker truck with the open valve.

In this photo you can see the connection to the fire hydrant and the open valve with the water pouring out. The pavement is also quite wet all around the area indicating how much water has been wasted.

While I was there taking pictures, someone who said he was “the manager” drove up and turned off the hydrant; I am sure it was only because I was there.

According to some folks I called at the City, under current regulations taking water from a hydrant is legal when using a hydrant meter issued by the city. I think this is a travesty at this stage of an extended exceptional drought. How absurd it is for this to be allowed!!

Everyone I talked to at the city agreed that the wastage was inexcusable. However there is apparently little that can be done unless one of the three city inspectors actually catch them in the act.

Considering that ordinary citizens are being called upon to reduce daily water usage to 25 to 35 gallons per person, this waste outrageous!

How you can help

Tomorrow (Tuesday February 5) at 1:00pm the City of Raleigh is having a council meeting to discuss moving to stage 2 water restrictions which would ban all outside water usage. I plan to be there.

The so-called Green Industry Council plans to be there to in an effort to block stage 2 restrictions or at least to obtain exemptions for some or all of its members. The council apparently represents builders, landscapers, and other outdoor and commercial users of water.

Please come and lend your support. Let us put an end to outside water usage until this drought is over and the reservoirs and lakes used as our water supplies have returned to normal levels.

The meeting is at 1:00pm at 222 West Hargett Street in downtown Raleigh.