| Election Day... |
[Nov. 4th, 2008|11:57 am] |
Do the right thing today and remember nobody can follow you into the booth. |
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| Sarah Palin... |
[Sep. 4th, 2008|06:38 pm] |
It's 2008, election year....I'm back...I will be more brash than ever in defending my beliefs and the people who share them. Don't like it? Sorry. OK, now that that's out of the way...
The terrible personal attacks against Sarah Palin just show what the feminist movement is all about. It's not about feminism. It's the face of a much larger agenda that advances progressivism, which heads towards an ultimate goal of spreading misery equally. If not everyone can be rich, nobody can be.
I thought that many of her attributes were admirable traits among these "enlightened" women whose goal was to do much more than simply stand in the kitchen and bake cookies. She works full time, while raising kids. Something to be proud of with the bra-burners, right? She worked on a commercial fishing vessel! How many women do that? She hunts and skins caribou and elk! Again, I ask... She was an athlete in high school and still works out on a regular basis. What are the differences between her and all the women who are hailed for "doing the same things men do?" She does, in fact, have a family. She gladly accepted her fifth child, who has Down Syndrome. She balances family and career. She has an involved husband. She uses her husband's last name. The biggest thing that irks the "feminists" out there is that she has an "R" next to her name. That's the reason for the smears she's faced, including the worst one of all in US Weekly, where they indicated that her youngest son is, in fact, her grandson, and that the baby was carried by her daughter, Bristol. That's the reason she's being called a kook. That's the reason she's being called a country bumpkin, white trash. That's the reason she's being portrayed as guest material on The Jerry Springer Show.
Imagine if she had a "D" next to her name, and railed on about government healthcare, soup line America, gun-grabbing and "sticking it to The Man." She'd be celebrated for her middle-class beginnings, her toughness, her go-getter attitude.
But, this is what we have, and this is why we have it.
As for me... Well, Palin has a down-to-earth, human, realistic quality that I like about her. I like her personality. I like her passion. Most of all, I like her tendency for not only not turning down challenges and taking the easy road, but for taking the proverbial bull by the horns and embracing challenge. She's for gun rights, capitalism, energy exploration, national defense, individual rights, and smaller, more efficient government. She gives John McCain's ticket confidence, principle, character, and actual excitement. An excitement, at least in the GOP, that I have never seen in the time I've been voting in elections or even following politics. This looks to be 1980 all over again.
She's a tough, tough woman. There's no reason she won't stand strong among the attacks on her and her family. There's no reason she should back down. Nobody has anything on her.
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| Adam's Mark Footage - GREAT Stuff! |
[Jul. 13th, 2008|09:18 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | implosion | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Meat Puppets - "Plateau" | ] |
For those of you who've been keeping up with my journal a long time, you may remember me talking about the implosion of the Adam's Mark Hotel on Clearwater Beach. I didn't make it to the beach itself to watch it. But I found this video on YouTube taken by a guy who lives in the condo building right next door to the doomed hotel. Literally 150 feet away from the demolition site. He stayed on his patio to watch the whole thing, dodging police spotlights and all.
If you're an implosion fan, this is a must watch. At the end of the countdown, make sure your volume is turned down some.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4x74hD1oeQ
Oh, I promise to update soon. |
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| I Hate The News... |
[Jun. 8th, 2008|08:36 am] |
Especially that on BBC America. They're just like ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN. They ran a segment called <i>Foreclosure: Credit Victims</i>. Credit Victims? Well, I thought this was a company kidnapping people in extreme low-income neighborhoods and forcing them at gunpoint to buy a house. Or, I was thinking that some company breached the terms of the contracts and charged adjustable rate mortgages instead of fixed rate. Turns out neither was the case. There was a woman in the story who bought a house with a value of 12 times her annual income. Single with two kids. 12 times her annual income! And they're calling her a victim??? This is crazy! She bought the house in 2005. We are in the 21st century now! More information is available than ever before! People can send emails on their cell phones! We have GPS available in cars! You can find virtually anything you need to know on this thing called the internet! A little due diligence on your part before making the biggest investment of your life couldn't have been a bad thing! There is no victim here; you didn't do your homework. And now the rest of us have to pay to bail your ass out. If she had done a little research she would have found...
Real estate people always say the rule of thumb is to never buy a house more than three times your annual income. Or household income if you're married or if your SO is going to be on the title. If you're going in it alone and you make what she made, 39,000 per year, the most house you can afford is $117,000. And in NYC, you aren't going to find anything near that. Nor will you in much of the country.
This is why houses aren't selling right now. The prices are higher than the market can reasonably handle. And it's going to be a long time before they get down to where the market can handle it. It's when 3x the average household income meets or exceeds the average home cost. Right now, Florida is about 5 times. So, unless you live in certain areas that are exempt from this market swing (Detroit or St. Louis, for example), don't buy a house, especially if you're breaking the 3 times rule! Wait a few years. |
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| RIP, Don Richards... |
[Jun. 7th, 2008|06:08 pm] |
He was the long-time news director and head newsman at WFLA radio. He became somewhat famous 10 years ago after accidentally ending up doing an interview with Hank Earl Carr, a person who killed his son, a couple of police officers, and holed himself up in a gas station with a hostage before killing himself. The 10th anniversary of this was just a week or two ago.
http://www.porkchopsandapplesauce.org/murderer.mp3
This touching exerpt is from Tedd Webb's website: "[Richards] had been ill since October. He wanted to see his only grandchild born before he died. Megan was born yesterday, in Gainesville. Don’s wife, Ginger took pictures of the baby and rushed right back. He saw them this morning, went right to sleep and never woke up again."
I'll always remember his voice and how well he did the news. He was 65 and died from lung cancer. He had been absent from the station since around the end of 2007. |
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| The Sopranos... |
[Jun. 9th, 2007|12:39 pm] |
OK, I would like to open up this thread to you, my readers. I won't friends-lock this post, so if you're an outsider, feel free to answer.
Will Tony Soprano die in tomorrow night's episode of The Sopranos? If so, how will he die? Discuss, please.
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My Prediction: Any number of people could kill Tony for any number of reasons. Mob family, blood family, an old face. I believe Tony will die, however, I don't believe he will be killed by someone. I believe Tony will die of a massive heart attack. His lifestyle has been on display for all the world to see for 8.5 years. His eating, his lack of fitness, his Type-A personality, even his panic attacks. About once a season, someone mentions that Tony will have a heart attack if he keeps it up. Well, he has to die. Everyone has mentioned he will get whacked. Seems almost too predictable now. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 4th, 2006|10:52 pm] |
Well. Yeah. It's been a while since I've been around these parts. Quite a bit has happened lately.
The biggest news would have to be that I finally got a new vehicle. That friggin truck screwed me over for the last time. It had just become flat out undependable. The last month I owned it, I spent in car repairs the equivalent of 4 car payments now.
In other news I've been mostly working. Worked just shy of 12 hours today. There's just a lot of work right now and I'm trying to get some work for next year. So far we've gotten a couple of good jobs.
The weather has been up and down here on the west coast of the east coast of North America. Thanksgiving week was rather cool. Last week was in the 80s all week. This week will be cooler again with highs in the 60s and low 70s.
I did see the movie Happy Feet the weekend before last with Michele's cousin, Audrey. On the surface, it was an OK movie with a few funny lines and fantasic animation. Below the surface, I couldn't help but notice a theme to this movie. The theme went somewhere along the lines of The penguins in Antarctica are starving because the people are stealing all the fish with big boats and big nets. And a few of the penguins are getting very ill because of those rings that go around soda cans wind up around penguin necks. And they wonder why people like me could give a rat's ass about walking into a theatre. Always be careful of They, peeps.
I'm better now. Yep. I'm Steve, and I approve this post. Later. |
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| Bob Lassiter 1945-2006 |
[Oct. 18th, 2006|01:08 am] |
A Tampa radio legend, "Mad Dog" Lassiter died last Friday morning of complications from his long battle with diabetes. He kept a blog of his own for the last year and change. In it he chronicled what life was like with failing kidneys, a chunk of his left foot missing as a result of the illness, failing vision, and lethargy. Later on he would talk about his depressed state, knowing death was near. He would talk about his difficulties doing things like going to the bathroom and fixing morning coffee. A few months ago, he noted that he was no longer capable of going up and down stairs.
I first listened to Lassiter in 1994 when he was with 620 WSUN. He and his deep-voiced sidekick, Sharon Taylor, entertained the listeners each and every afternoon. He did things his way on the show, instead of talking about dull political themes each and every day. He would make people laugh, he would make people angry; so angry that people would call in eager to go to blows. He would often attract (and encourage on slow days) prank callers. The ones he didn't like he'd reply with "you're a subhuman pig," or one time: "You're the lowest of the low, you're a snake, you're a SCUMBAG!" Overall, he was entertaining, even if I didn't always agree with his views on politics. He made people listen. He was one of a kind.
And he was sharp-tongued, right to the very end. His last blog entry, just 10 days before his death, spoke in condemnation of a tribute 970 WFLA wanted to pay to him.:
So yesterday I discovered that my good, close, personal friends at WFLA are hard at work preparing my obituary. It’s reported that my “many friends” at the station are worried about me. Of course, in the past seven years I’ve only seen one of my “many friends”, and spoken briefly with another on the phone.
Overall, I’m amused that the bastards who threw me out in the gutter, now want to “honor” me with a fancy obit. I’m sure that it will be a warm and fuzzy thing, praising me to the hilt – why must the world be so phony?
Indeed, WFLA has that tribute on their website. In spite of the bitter state of their breakup, it is absolutely deserved. Not for the station, not for Clear Channel, but for Lassiter. |
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| How I Escaped AOL's Evil Clutches |
[Jun. 24th, 2006|09:25 am] |
This is in response to the story of the guy who recorded his cancellation phone call with a representative at AOL. The transcript can be read here:
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/06/22/Floridian/At_AOL___cancel__just.shtml
At any rate, here's my story. I called one night a few days before the account was to be billed. I didn't want to blow another $30 on service that I no longer used. I was aware of the nightmarish scenarios that occurred during this process, but it was something that had to be done. I called the 800#, entered in a bunch of information, gave them my password, secret answer, blah, blah, blah. I waited for a few minutes until a rep picked up my call.
CSR: Thank you for calling AOL, this is ____, how may I assist you tonight?
Me: I'm calling to cancel my AOL account.
CSR: Well, I'm sorry to hear that. Would you please give me your name and address?
I gave her my name, address, and other particulars.
CSR: OK, very good. Is there a reason why you'll be cancelling service with AOL?
Me: Yes. I have a new service through my company which will make my current AOL service unnecessary. This is untrue, I made it up just to try to dodge their stonewalling a little easier.
There was no response. I then realize that I dropped the call! I realized that I'd have to go through this all over again.
I called back, entered this number, that number, etc. The recording said, "Let us look up your account." It looked up the account and informed me that the information I'd given was on an account that had been cancelled! Thinking this was in error, I hung up. I dialed the number again a minute later. For a third time, I entered in all this information. This time, I did it more carefully. Once again, I was informed that this account had been cancelled. That time, I did not hang up, but I pushed some number for more information. It told me the account had been cancelled on such and such a date, which was the date that day. IOW, it'd been cancelled when my phone connection dropped.
Still apprehensive about this, I checked my next bank statement and confirmed that the account had not been charged. In addition, I received a cancellation letter in the mail about 10 days after my call, complete with a confirmation number.
My suggestion is this: If you need to cancel AOL, hang up when the rep starts stonewalling. Call back two more times, to make sure the account is cancelled. Most importantly, wait for your cancellation letter, and check your bank or credit card statements for charges to make sure no further charges have been made.
Having said all this, let me make one thing clear. I don't know if this routine is a sure-fire way towards an easy and effective cancellation, or if this was simply an anomaly resulting from the actions of a less-seasoned representative. Your experience may be different from mine, this is one reason why I recommend checking back to make sure the system tells you the account is cancelled. |
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| This Journal is now Friends Only... |
[Jun. 29th, 2005|07:32 pm] |
...with one or two exceptions.
Really humorous friends only banner to (maybe) follow.
If you'd like to be friended, please comment. Current friends need not comment.
--Steve |
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