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Now, let me get this straight…..We are going to pass a health care plan written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn’t understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn’t read it but exempts themselves from it, to be signed by a president that also hasn’t read it and who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn’t pay his taxes…all to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that’s nearly broke. What could possibly go wrong?

~Anonymous

From today’s "The Gartman Letter"

Continue reading »]]> I’ve recently been drinking European beers, as opposed to the local area microbrews. I picked up a case of one of my favorite pilsners, Bitburger. I first learned of this beer from my father, who used to drink it when he was stationed at Bitburg Air Base in the early 80s. This beer has always had mixed reviews, you either like it or you don’t. It pours a clear yellow with very little head. It’s good cold or slightly above room temp. It has a medium hoppiness to it with a dry aftertaste, and leaves you with a clean palette. Another favorite of mine is Pilsner Urqell from the Czech Republic. I think I might get a case of that tomorrow. Until then, Bitte ein Bit.

Here’s the review from RateBeer.com.

Continue reading »]]> I have been really busy as of late (haven’t we all?), and every time I think about something to write about, I jot down a few notes so I will remember what it is I wanted to write about. As of late it has been stupid shit I hear or read about in Mass Media; things like the asshole Danes reprinting the illustrations of the prophet Mohammad that pissed off all the Muslims around the world in an effort to promote Freedom of Speech. The problem is that when I get around to sitting down to type my two cents into the computer. My creative side takes a vacation, and I have no motivation to write.

So now it is a week later, and I still can’t find the energy or motivation to transcribe the utter crap that is seeing the light of day in Mass Media this week. Aside from the whole Mohammad cartoons bit, the local news has been about the Pennsylvania Governor, Ed Rendell, ‘playing the race card’ in a effort to support Hillary Clinton. What utter bullshit. Anybody who got past the headline and sound bite and listened to what the governor actually said would have realized that he was making a general statement about the view of some percentage of the voting population in the state. Of course the Obama supporters are going to spin it one way, and the Hillary supporters will explain what Rendell ‘meant to say’, but seriously, who cares? He did not play the ‘race card’. He made a generalized comment that has some truth to it. You know, come to think of it, there is most likely a percentage of Pennsylvanians and Americans that won’t vote for Obama because of his skin color, but there’s also a percentage that will. The same stupid generalized comment can be said for Hillary and her being female; some will vote for her because of it, and some won’t for the same reason. Personally, I think if you vote for someone because of their gender, skin color, or race, then you’re an idiot, and probably shouldn’t be voting in the first place. So what if he said it. Everyone has been saying it. They may have not been focusing on the Pennsylvania electorate, but every news agency and pollster has been asking the question since this presidential campaign began. The real crime here is that Mass Media has jumped all over this and turned it into something it’s not.

As for this whole offensive cartoons of Mohammad, everyone needs to chill the hell out. The Muslim world has a right to be offended, but they don’t have the right to murder the men who drew the cartoons, nor do they have the right to riot all over the place. I understand that an overwhelming majority of Muslims simply chalked it up to ignorance on the Danish newspaper and their staff, but the media isn’t going to show you that side of of Islam, they are going to show you the 1% that wants to trash McDonald’s and burn flags, and so on an so forth. This happened over two years ago, and everything calmed down, or so we thought, but this week the Danish intelligence released news that their was a murder plot against one of the illustrators that drew one of the original twelve cartoons and they had arrested three men, two of which were going to be expelled from the country, and the other was released on bail. Once this news got out, what did the Danes decide to do? That’s right. Let’s call all of our newspapers buddies in Denmark and across Europe and have everyone reprint the same cartoons as a gesture of the Freedom of Speech. This is the point where ignorance from two years ago has matured into full-blown stupidity. Everyone knows that when you attack someone’s religious beliefs, all hell is going to break loose, and Mass Media will be there to show the worst parts of it in all of its sensationalized goodness. I can’t wait until Sony Pictures releases Angels and Demons next year, and the Catholics get all bent out of shape again. Maybe Mel Gibson will make Passion of the Christ: The Early Years, and we can piss of the Jewish people once more. I can’t wait.

So in summary, it appears my writer’s block is gone.

Continue reading »]]> Really? How can you be sure? I mean the verb “running” really isn’t the first one that pops into my head when I think of Fred Thompson’s campaign. Here are some that do (in no particular order): walk; leisurely stroll; the shuffle or waddle one might have after the fart, and aren’t really sure if it was only gas that came out. I predicted a while ago, as did most, that Thompson would most likely drop out before February 5th, and now it’s official.

I’m still on the Huck Wagon.

Continue reading »]]> With the plethora of both Democratic and Republican candidates currently campaigning for their respective party nomination, the average American citizen of voting age (e.g., me) might be wondering the same thing I was: “Which candidate best shares my views on the topics that I find most important?” After a few Google searches, I came across glassbooth.org. Glassbooth allows you to first select and give weight to the topics that you find most important.  Glassbooth then constructs a series of questions applicable to those topics. After answering those questions, Glassbooth shows you the top three candidates that align closest to your answers. You also have the option of selecting any candidate to see how they matched up. I found the website most enlightening as it allowed me to see not only which candidate I might choose to vote for, but Glassbooth also shows supporting evidence about why the candidate has a particular position on that topic. Sometimes it’s a reference to a speech given, or for those that were Congressmen or Senators, their voting record on such topics as the Patriot Act, the Iraq War, or healthcare.

Continue reading »]]> After wavering back and forth over Fred Thompson or Mike Huckabee, I am 99.9% sure I am going to have to go with Mike Huckabee in the upcoming primaries. I like both candidates, and I agree with both candidates on a majority of the issues, but I get the feeling when listening to both candidates that Huckabee wants it more. Fred Thompson just gives off this vibe of “I am in the race, and I’ll just stand here and see how this pans out.” Thompson doesn’t give off the energy that Huckabee does, and that is disappointing. So disappointing in fact that I felt compelled to change the party affiliation on my Pennsylvania voter registration from “No affiliation” to “Republican” just so I can vote in the Pennsylvania primary election on April 22, 2008.

I wish more states were like New Hampshire, which allow you to vote in either primary when registered as an independent, but as that is not the case in Pennsylvania, changing my party affiliation was the only choice. So it’s done and now Mike Huckabee will have one more vote in his favor come April 22nd.

Oh yeah, one other thing…

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed how much Mike Huckabee looks like a young Jim Nabors?

In other other news, I finally got around to begin reading It’s Not News, It’s FARK, and at 268 pages, it should be a quick read. I will follow up with comments once I finish it.

Continue reading »]]> George W. Bush is has fully endorsed Fred Thompson stating that he “Likes the way he articulafies his words” and admires the fact he doesn’t need a Press Secretary to perform “damage control” after he speaks.

Fred Thompson For President

And not to be crass, but his wife, Jeri, is smoking hot and that should easily add to the Popular Vote come Election Day.