To The Metal

With things like terrorism, murders, rapes, burglaries, etc… the NYS Supreme Court has found time to back an 80 year old law banning DANCING in New York City bars.

Court Backs NYC’s Ban on Dancing in Bars

That’s right, if you want to dance, you have to be at a licensed dancing location. Good grief.

Now I won’t fault folks for investing in a vehicle that is a gas miser like the Toyota Prius. Personally, I’ll stick with my 30mpg VW. Still, one if the latest gripes about the car involves how quiet it is when it is simply running on batteries. This presents a problem for the blind who simply cannot see it coming.

So groups are calling for noisemakers on the cars, or some way to alert blind pedestrians. Now I can understand the dangers of something that makes no noise to the blind. Street signs, trees, cyclists, curbs, etc… The article below makes a point of quoting the number of pedestrians killed in 2005. Big deal. I doubt enough of them were wasted by quiet cars to warrant this crap.

If anything, this is nothing more than another exploitative special interest group trying to cash in on the popularity of hybrid technology.

Blind Want Prius to Make Noise

It seems to be the pattern in the middle east, that when not under the control of a murderous dictator – the people will fight amongst themselves until a new tyrant rises. Can Democracy work? Sure, I firmly believe it can. However the road to Democracy will be long, hard, and paved with blood. That, and it freedom can’t be handed to a people, it must be taken. Something given has no value. Sure, Iraq is free of Hussein, but if Iraq had wanted to be free, they would have hung him themselves.

If a nation harbors terrorists, or supports them, or simply does nothing about them – just take out the leader. If they threaten the US, if they rattle a saber, if they so much as send us an errant look… Send in special forces, help the leader(s) achieve room temperature, and get back out. Without the tyrant in charge, the people will fight amongst themselves for control. In the end the population will be drastically reduced, the people will be either free or under the thumb of a new tyranny, and they will all remember that if they fuck with America – we won’t have to attack them. They’ll destroy themselves for us.

Eventually they’ll be so busy trying to stop the fighting themselves that we, and our support for Israel are no longer a concern, or they’ll be dead. Either way, we win, we’re safe, and we can go back to reporting on the half-life of Anna Nicole’s implants instead of more dead heroes in the sands of Iraq.

Stronger than any religious fervor, or any suicidal faith – is the willingness of the human spirit to survive. Terror won’t work on those who are numb to it. Give them all something to fight that doesn’t involve us.

Last year when I caught the auditions for American Idol, and saw Chris Daughtry sing, it peaked my interest enough to watch the show and see what unfolded.

Each week, Chris raised and set the bar. The expression “oh fuck” was clear on the face of every competitor every time he sang.

When he was voted off, the bar was lowered to Kelly Clarkson levels.

When Taylor Hicks won the competition, the bar became a speed bump.

I gave this season a shot. The auditions were painfully entertaining, and one thing was clear – not a single singer stood out. Everyone was a different version of Taylor Hicks, offering renditions of pop hits that would make a Karaoke bar wince. Anything unique, anything which strayed from mediocrity was voted off – even in the name of absolutely horrid vocals that would make Tom Araya sound like an angel.

If after last season there was any question that the show is rigged, it is beyond any semblance of doubt now. God help the poor souls dumb enough to keep watching.

That time again, for a new letter to the editor. Short, sweet, and to the point…

With the growth of our community in my lifetime and what we pay in school taxes, how did we forget about the library?

Over the years, we’ve heard calls for a new building repeatedly muffled by the same objectors who vanish every time a new housing development goes up. While everyone wants to live here, it seems nobody wanted to look at the bill let alone foot it.

With each tax hike, every pay raise, every new diesel powered banana split, our library grows smaller. If we could fit as many taxpayers into our library as we can into our buses or administrative offices, this point would be moot.

For once lets tell the district what to spend our money on, I’ve about had it with the alternative. Sure we’ve got some spiffy campuses and buses, but when our kids go to college and don’t know what a library is…

Simple fact is we’ve dumped millions into schools, ignored the library all along, and then use the fact it is small and unpopular as an excuse not to expand it! The district has always had a problem with spending taxpayer cash on the wrong things, from pay raises for worthless layers of administration – shitty teachers tied to our district by tenure, and an obscene number of school buses with new additions each year. Every school has been expanded, new schools have been built, and all along people have shat on the local library every time expansion is mentioned. Sure, build me a new house, destroy another plot of open space – just don’t give my kids a place to learn when the school’s aren’t an option. Fuck that.

In my career, I always get requests to tidy up a home system, restore it to function, etc… Most cases the cause is a user who doesn’t quite know how to keep things up to date while not downloading the entire Intarweb to their system. Most of the time when I get these systems to work on, they’re rather tidy. Sure, they have a few signs of wear – most home systems do… But then again I get some that look as if they were dunked in a toilet tank, dried, and then coated with the squishy contents of the bowl – then dried again. In short – they are some funky systems.

So I ask, why? I’ve been to many places, seen many electronics setups, but by far I think besides the ferret-coated laptop I had to refurbish a few years back – this little tower system I need to work on now is the filthiest thing I’ve seen. Entertaining considering the owner has the personality of Mila Kunis’s Jackie from That 70’s Show.

Ick.

I’m not completely over the hump yet, but I’m getting there. A majority of the swelling has left my feet and ankles, while my right knee is still fairly cranky it looks like I’m beating the Parvo B19 / Fifth Disease which has been kicking my ass for more than a month.

All goes well, and continue to progress… I’ll be out and about this weekend. YEE FUCKING HAH.

So my guy wrecked out towards the end, the #48 got loose and caught the bad side of a wall. Then it looked like Mark Martin might finally land a Daytona victory – until things went to hell, Harvick got a jump, and stole the win. Martin isn’t my favorite, but I had hoped that the Chevy he was driving might just do the trick. There’ll be more opportunities I’m sure. Last 5 minutes were pretty exciting.

Watching the Daytona 500… It’s Toyota’s debut in the Nextel Cup series… Funny thing is, out of all the manufacturers – Chevy, Dodge, Ford… Toyota is the only manufacturer who actually builds its vehicles in the US.

Speaks volumes.