Go get 'em, Jammie !!

There was an interesting article in today's paper about one Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a 32-year-old mother of four and self-described "huge music fan". Happily, in this electronic age, you can read the article here. The eye-popping statistic is that the RIAA goons have filed more than 30,000 copyright lawsuits, and Thomas-Rasset is one of the few who who have chosen to fight back instead settling out-of-court for an average of $3,500. It was also news to me that last December, RIAA announced it was dropping this brown-shirt tactic of slamming lawsuits on individual file-sharers.

Personally, I would never do anything as illegal as downloading songs. I think MP3 is the newest game console and Kazaa is a low-brow musical instrument. But if RIAA ever asked me to resolve the issue of file-swapping, here's what I'd tell them.

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Assemble an MP3 database similar to what Amazon.com offers, and charge users a flat fee of $20/month to legally download an unlimited amount of MP3 files. Heck, make it a yearly charge of $250.

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Yeah, everybody who signs up will download music like crazy for the first month. The problem is - you can only listen to one track at a time. So after awhile, those hundreds of MP3's you downloaded, but never listen to, are doing nothing more than taking up space on your hard drive. And they're not worth anything, because all your friends can legally download them as well.

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This concept may seem undo-able, but I remember the day AOL announced they were going to offer unlimited minutes of Internet access. After the initial round of snickers and predictions of AOL's demise, everybody else followed suit, and today those memories of carefully hoarding the 300-minutes-a-month ration are just a dusty mental cobweb.

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So wise up, RIAA. Accept the fact that you can't turn back file-sharing technology, and learn to live with it. I and tens-of-thousands of others will send you $250 annually and we can all do a group hug, sing a chorus of Kumbayah, and get back to what MP3-downloading is all about - promoting the bands and musicians.

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- UPDATE -

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Bummer. Jammie got nailed with a 1.92-million-dollar fine. Read all about it here. Which will of course be appealed. Good thing I don't download music files. (Whistles nervously) Good thing also that the RIAA has (said that they have) abandoned this gestapo tactic.

Karl and Ems

Here's guessing that the number of cartoons that have both Karl Marx and Emily Dickinson in them is rather small.

Why I'm a Conspiracy Nut - Part 2

This is Stephen T. Johns, a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, who was murdered yesterday by... ...this 88-year-old scum bag White Supremacist hate-monger, James von Brunn. Just another point to suppport my claim that dittoheads think different from progressives.

Von Brunn left a message in his car - "You want my weapons — this is how you'll get them. The Holocaust is a lie. Obama was created by Jews."

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That last sentence reminds me of an e-mail I got from one of my (dittohead) colleagues at work a few months ago. The e-mail (forwarded of course. Dittoheads can't write whole sentences on their own.) basically claimed that Obama was an Al-Qaeda plant. Since the colleague is an otherwise bright guy, I wrote him back and asked if he really was so stupid as to believe that piece of electronic slander. He said he did.

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And therein lies the danger of such hate-mail. 30% of the people will find it offensive (I did). 50% will find it ridiculous (my son did). 18% will think that it's true (my colleague did), but take no action beyond sending it to everyone in their address book.

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But 2% will think it's true and resolve to kill someone connected to it, if they ever get the chance. And so doctors get gunned down in church, and security guards get murdered while doing their jobs.

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For the moment, you will see a bunch of right-wing brown-shirt hate groups half-heartedly distancing themselves from these psychopathic loonies. Deleting inflammatory blurbs from their websites, and saying they never meant that people should take them literally when they angrily yabbered away about (insert non-dittohead target here) not being fit to live.

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For a while. Until things calm down. Then it's back to competing as to who can forward the most outrageous, venom-dripping, violence-promoting pack of lies to everyone else on the Internet.

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And so it goes...

guess Who's a tagger...

You may have missed it, but God has sent another miracle to you slackers out there. This time, it's the old "Oil on an icon" ploy, always a crowd-pleaser. You can read the Associated Press's article on it here. Now I know what some of you cynics out there are saying - that this is one weird-a$$ way for God to communicate. Heck if some skateboarding vandal had done this, he'd be sitting in an Israeli jail now. So to help those of you weak-in-the-faith (you know who you are), here's proof that God did this, and a couple of messages He (She?) gave to his favored followers.

Proof that it was God.

"This is a miracle," said Aida Abu Edam, a longtime church member. She knows because the oil has a strange smell. "It's a special, holy smell. It's not ordinary, like olive oil. It's something strange that comes from God." How can you argue with that?

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What the message is - Part One.

"People these days, they've forgot God and this is a sign to tell them, 'I'm still here.'" Thus saith Edith Fanous, 31, who's been going to this church since she was a little girl.

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What the message is - Part Two.

"There's war and discrimination. I see a lot of discrimination against Arabs here in Israel, and maybe this is a good lesson for everybody to love each other and live with each other with equal rights," said Kosty Tannous, 33, an Israeli customs worker. No word on whether he's a regular church-goer there as well.

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Personally, I find it a funny way for God to tell you He's still around. Who knew He'd become a tagger? The two "messages" are quite contradictory, so feel free to make up your own Divinely-inspired interpretation. And if the Spirit moves you (alveit, hopefully not by having you yammer away in tongues), feel free to leave The Message as a comment here.

Columbus pics

A couple pics from my trip to Columbus, Ohio last week. I'm not at liberty to discuss what business we were doing there.

Mensa

It should be noted that all three of my siblings were - and AFAIK still are - members of Mensa. IIRC, one can "qualify" in two ways. . First, you can somehow get hold of your IQ records, and if you're in the top 2% of humanity (IQ >141, or somewhere around there), they just let you in. If it turns out you are one of the other moronic 98%, you still have a chance by agreeing to take Mensa's "beg us to let you join" test. . According to my brother/sisters, the main function of Mensa is to allow you to hold intelligent conversations with other geniuses. You pay a yearly fee for this privilege, and in addition to the witty repartee, you get a quarterly newsletter, which is mostly puzzles created by fellow Mensans. . In the end, I managed to resist the temptation to give my money to a bunch of elitists. I get all the puzzles I need in a Dell Crossword magazine for a fraction of the Mensa dues. The holiday/pool-party back-porch discussions at our house, which invariably center on politics, music, books, and philosophy, are plenty stimulating. So I'm content to mingle with the common, unwashed 98%.

Tiger Tiger, burning bright

I had a chance to watch Tiger at the Memorial Tournament in Ohio, but passed on it. Two of my work colleagues went to see the second round last Friday, after our business near Columbus was wrapped up. I suppose I should've gone, but... . Just what the heck do you do all day at a PGA golf tournament? I guess I couild've followed Tiger around. Yeah, me and five thousand other people. . Or I could set up a chair at a given hole and watch all the players as the play that one. But after 20 minutes of, "Wow! Great shot! Wow! Great shot! Wow! Great shot!", I'd be quite bored. . Of course, there's always beer to quench your boredom. But one of us would've had to teetotal, so that we could drive back to Columbus airport Friday afternoon to catch the plane back to Phoenix. And that frankly would have been me, since the only way I enjoy a beer is when I'm sitting in a pub in England. . So until someone can tell me how golf tournament spectators keep themselves amused for eight hours, I don't regret missing this event.

Cyberspeak Eye Chart

I'm proud to say I'm acquainted with all the acronyms here, except the "ST" in Line 4.

w00t!!

RIP - Kwai Chang Caine

David Carradine

b. : 08 December 1936

d. : 03 June 2009

. You young'uns will know David Carradine from the Kill Bill movies, but us geezers remember him from the 1972-1975 series Kung Fu, where he played the Shaolin monk Kwai Chang Caine. . Carradine was found dead on Wednesday in Thailand. Initially reported as a suicide, it now appears he was engaged in a most bizarre practice of combining strangulation with orgasm, something that staggers even my progessive mind. . Kung Fu was an instant sensation in 1972, with Carradine playing an exiled Buddhist monk roaming the American wild west, kicking black-hatted cowboy butt and having philosophical flashbacks to his monastery days. It gave us the immortal line, "When you can take the pebble out of my hand, grasshopper, it will be time for you to leave." . With time, the series dwindled into mediocrity. As with Mork & Mindy and M*A*S*H, the moral lessons got shallower and banal, and the flashback scenes (which are what we all watched the show for) became fewer and farther-between. That made it just another western. By the time he found his long-lost brother, nobody cared. . But in its heyday, Kung Fu was a TV-changing series. Up till then, no one had tried to integrate Buddhist philosophy into a prime-time series, let alone present Kung-Fu martial arts as anything other than mindless fighting. For Carradine, it came at a cost of being typecast for the rest of his life. But there are worse fates than that. Just ask Leonard Nimoy. . So rest in peace, Kwai Chang Caine. And next time remember that with auto-erotic asphyxiation, the emphasis should be on the first half, not the second.

Up, up and away...

I'll be in Columbus, Ohio for the next two days, so no posts. Yeah, it's "a ways" from here. Four hours in the air each way. I'll be doing some serious reading and lots of crossword puzzles.

Why I'm a Conspiracy Nut

The Pro-Life thugs have done it again. They've murdered another abortion doctor, this time in Kansas. 67-year-old Dr. George Tiller was gunned down as he served as an usher at his local church. You can read about it here, although I'm sure there will be daily updates over the next few days. . It's funny how the Pro-Lifers are always the ones killing Pro-Choicers, not vice versa. I guess only certain lives are sacred. This highlights a theory I've had for a long time. . When you look at the notable American assassinations over the last 50 years - John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, the trio of James Chaney - Andrew Goodman - Michael Schwemer, etc. - it's always the progressives that are getting killed. . My theory is this : right-wing radicals think differently from the rest of us. There's something in their psychological make-up that tells them that murdering those who oppose them is justifiable. . "Ho-hum," you say. "It's just your conspiracy paranoia showing again, Terry." But consider this. We've just lived through eight years of the worst presidential regime ever. Led by a moron, we've regressed at least a half-century. Science was repressed while Dubya received messages from God. The "American way" was re-defined as going to war under false pretenses and waterboarding detainees. We went from everyone in the world feeling our pain after 9-11, to being universally despised for our arrogance. . Yet in all this, I never heard anyone on the left suggest that Dubnutz ought to be killed. Why? Cuz it's not in our psyche to solve problems that way. Which puts us at an inherent disadvantage. The wing-nuts have no such inhibitions. . I'm not suggesting that all Republicans are potential killers. I am suggesting that if someone is pre-disposed to murdering for a political cause, 99% of the time, he will be a right-wing militant. Which means Pro-Choicers and other Human Rights Activists will continue to get gunned down, while dittoheads rationalize it away by saying, "He had it coming."

Angel Kitty

The weirdest story of the past week concerns a cat in China growing "wings". The MSNBC article on it is here. The word photoshopped always comes to my mind when I see a pic like this, but for the moment, if MSNBC is buying into it, I'll warily do the same. . The bizarre parts of the story are that the appendages didn't grow until the cat was a year old, and that this phenomenon is not unprecedented. And while some will find a message from God here (feel free to leave a comment as to what that celestial message might be); I, being a chemist, am a bit more suspicious of this being linked to the quality (or lack thereof) of the water and air in the cat's neighborhood.

Texas Rangers win again!!

The Texas Rangers, of whom I've been a fan since Ted Williams managed them a long time ago, are 30-19 after drubbing the Athletics today, 14-1. Whoodathunkit? . However, there is a small matter of a road series at Yankee Stadium coming up next week.

Mick Ronson

I don't know that www.radiofreephoenix.com will tear me away from my musical first loves of Applied Metal and Prog (*), but they are introducing me to a host of obscure acts. . One of which is ("was" actually) Mick Ronson. RFP played a track from his Heaven And Hull album called "Life's A River". Absolutely fantastic guitar work. Ronson worked with David Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust days, and was chums with Ian Hunter as well. I'm definitely gonna have to ask RFP to play some more of his stuff. (*) : well okay. I like folk too. And bluegrass. And anything psychedelic. And light classical. And Pink Floyd is sacred in this house. And today I listened to some Gangsta Rap that was unexpectedly good.

CSSCOC (*)

Today's New Adventures of Queen Victoria strip nicely sums up my feelings about the California Supreme Court's self-contradictory and cowardly ruling re Proposition 8. How can you allow existing gay marriages to stand, but take away the right of same-sex couples to marry in the future? . Not to worry though. If SCOTUS doesn't overturn it (they don't have to worry about being up for re-election every two years), the California voters will come to their senses and reverse their vote in 2010. It will be on the ballot again then. . (*) : Chicken-Sh*t Supreme Court of California

Mr. T Chart

Something quick and mindless tonight, as I'm working on a slideshow for my moonlight company - TC Video. Which even has its own website at www.tcphotostudio.com

Tweaking Twitter

I think we'll try to make fun of Twitter at least once a week for a while. It's amazing the number of comic strips that are taking potshots at it. Here's an offering from one of my favorite cartoons - The New Adventures Of Queen Victoria. Way to tweak 'em, Your Highness.

Mexicans with Milk

Liz's Memorial Sunday pool bash was a rousing success - lotsa fun and food. Pics to follow shortly, on espère. In the evening our own professional Geek Squad, aka Ryan & Ryan, took a look at our new-but-inoperative DVD player and unequivocally declared us under-equipped. So it was off to WalMart @ 9:00 PM to find something called a Component Cable (as opposed to what came with the DVD player - a "Composite Cable"). . WalMart had a big poster showing those two types of cables, and urging us to choose the correct connection. Nice. Unfortunately and inexplicably, they don't stock Component Cables. Weird. That's like going into your local McDonalds, seeing a poster advertising a Big Mac, and then finding they don't sell it. . Well, between my own Instant Gratification urge, and the Geek Squad's sage advice, we ended up instead purchasing a PlayStation 3 (or, as you young'uns call it, a "PS3"), which, according to Ryan & Ryan, will not only play Liz's DVD's, but also cool games and Blu-Ray DVD's. And give the TV an Internet connection which, I am told, is primarily for playing PS3 games against other peeps, not for surfing da Net. That's all well and good; for now, I'm content just to be able to watch a movie. Although it is a bit strange, manipulating the DVD menu with a PS3 controller. Now to explain the two Drabble cartoons in this post... . As we were exiting WalMart last night, we were all bemused to see one of their greeters stopping a shopper and forcing him to show a receipt for his goods. Or should I say "good", since all he had purchased was one gallon of milk. The shopper was Hispanic, and you can't be too careful with Mexicans carrying milk. . Meanwhile, there was us - three scruffy-looking gringos walking out of the store with $500 worth of electronic equipment. Certainly no need to ask us to show our receipt. Gotta admire those ever-alert WalMart greeters.

Dali Fix for May

Dali combined with Magritte. How cool is that?!

Chillin' with the Grillin'

We now have a new grill for Memorial Day festivities. The burners on our old one were just about eroded away, so Liz went out and bought this 4-burner baby. We'll give it its initial work-out tomorrow at the pool bash. . The only problem is what to do with the old one. Methinks it's time to make a midnight donation to Salvation Army.

Liz's 2009 Memorial Day Pool Bash

Where : Our house

When : Sunday, 24 May

Invitees : People. Dogs. No cats.

Starts : 2-ish. Or so. Whenever.

Ends : Who knows? Who cares? We don't work Monday.

Outside : Swimming, philosophical discoursing.

Inside : HDTV; philosophical discoursing.

Sustenance : Burgers, booze, homemade ice cream, and more.

What flavor ice cream : Vanilla is rumored. with chocolate topping.

Radio Free Phoenix

I take it back. I've said that Phoenix radio sucks royally. And that's still true, at least as far as the local "traditional" stations go. But I've discovered a new concept - Internet Radio. And it just so happens there's a great station here in Phoenix. . And it's free!! And you don't have to be in Arizona to enjoy it. You can find it at www.radiofreephoenix.com. Oh my! At long last, I can once again hear groups like

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Mason Proffit

Renaissance

Randy Newman

It's A Beautiful Day

Melanie

Ian Dury & The Blockheads

Beat Farmers

Incredible String Band

. ...and a slew more. It isn't perfect. They don't list Al Kooper, Strawbs, or Jaime Brockett on their artists list. Then again, Firesign Theatre (who?, you say) isn't listed either, and they played a cut from them tonight. . So check it out! And rejoice that there still is an alternative to the repetitive, "vanilla" drivel that fouls up the airwaves on my car's radio.

Prancing With The Stars

After the heartbreaking conclusion to The Bachelor, I thought Liz was through with reality shows.

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Alas, twas not to be. I got roped into watching about 15 minutes of Dancing With The Stars last night. It's down to three couples, and - surprise! surprise! - Melanie's still in it.

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I have to admit, the bit I watched was impressive. But when it came time for the "freestyle", the first couple came on stage looking like a pair of black-&-white-spotted teletubbies, which was my cue to head off to the computer room.

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This is all so obviously contrived. The three couples got scores of 28, 29, and 30 (in that order, IIRC) in the part I watched. Melanie and Wotzizname are going to win, and you can bet the farm on it. Vote if you want to, but it won't alter the already-scripted ending.

Conference Dominance

We don't give a lot of pixels to sports at this blog, but some mention simply has to be made of the PAC-10's performance in the first-round regionals of the NCAA women's softball tournament. 16 regionals; 64 teams. 4 teams in a double-elimination tournament at each regional. The PAC-10 had six teams get in : ASU, U-of-A, Cal, Stanford, UCLA, and Washington.

The result - all six teams won their regionals. We call that TOTAL DOMINANCE! It remains to be seen who the best team is, but there's no doubt which conference is the strongest.

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One thing is sure - the perfect record won't continue through the next phase - the eight "super-regionals". We know that because U-of-A plays Stanford in one of them. Still kudos to the PAC-10 for this amazing feat.

Intercourse, Pennsylvania

There really is such a place as Intercourse, Pennsylvania. It's about 20 miles from where I grew up. But it's not filled with a bunch of perverts; it's filled with a bunch of Amish. Somewhere we have a photo of Liz standing beside the "Welcome To Intercourse" sign. If I come across it, I'll post it.

46 inches

We've joined the 21st Century! We've replaced our obese and old 26" television with a sleek 46" flat HDTV. It's a "1080/120 LED", whatever that means. . Oh, and the "we" is a bit misleading. Liz did the research, picked out a Samsung model, bought it along with a new DVD player; unhooked the old TV, and hooked up all the new stuff. I supplied a credit card and grunt labor. . To make it fit, the side shelves had to be cut out of the entertainment center. Many thanks to JE's crew for that. You can see in the photo where they'd been attached. We're waiting on some matching stain for that portion of the job to be completed. And of course, we still need to call the cable company and have them come out and set us up for HDTV feed.

C'est a rire...

For all you non-Francophones out there, a Royal Cheese is a Quarter-Pounder With Cheese.

Would I lie?

Armed-&-Hammered Dick Cheney has taken it upon himself to defend the Dubnutz regime and criticize Obama. Personally, I'm liking it. The 2010 elections aren't all that far away, and it would be nice to have it be another "dittohead versus integrity" referendum. So keep on yapping, Dick.

Chicken Camouflage - Part 2

Yeah, I know. It's baby birds, not chickens. And it's vegetables, not vegetation. Still, they are well-camouflaged. . And of course you know what these are. ...ahem.. They're chickpeas.

"Magna" Karta

This is Karta, an orangutan at the Adelaide Zoo in Australia. Karta dumbfounded zoo officials by figuring out how to short-circuit the electric fence around her enclosure, then piling debris into a makeshift ladder to successfully climb onto the top of the now-neutralized fence. You can read the MSNBC article on it here. . After 30 minutes atop the fence, Karta apparently determined further escape was impossible, so she climbed back into her enclosure. For now. One gets the feeling she hasn't given up. This proves two things. First, the great apes and chimpanzees are a heckuva lot smarter than what we give them credit for. And second, don't let the zoo spokespeople fool you - the animals hate being caged up and yearn for freedom.

Oh yeah, my gorilla friend, Kong, also asked me to post his message to the zoos on my blog. Happy to oblige, dude.

Groovy newspeak, daddy-o

Okay, all you hep-cats out there. The word for the day is "arlo". This is a verb, not the toking folk-singer pictured above. As in the phrase "Arlo'd for content". Here is where I saw it.

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So what does it mean? I can't find it as an acronym, and Wikipedia, the source of all my knowledge, doesn't list it. Changing the "o" for a "zero" didn't help either. I haven't been this nonplussed by a word/acronym since "w00t".

GIP, Molly

Molly has been given a reprieve on life. The one-year-old heifer escaped a slaughterhouse in Queens, New York on Wednesday, and had a merry 0ld time gallivanting around the city for a few hours before being cornered on (appropriately enough) a street corner. Her future was in doubt until a cow sanctuary announced they would give her shelter for the rest of her days. You can read all about Molly here. The episode is reminiscent of Cinci Freedom (pictured above) who jumped a six-foot fence back in 2002 to escape a slaughterhouse, and outwitted us humans for 11 days before finally being captured. You can read about CF, and sadly, her recent death, here.

I had the opportunity about 10 years ago to walk through a slaughterhouse in Texas. Let's not fool ourselves - the cows can smell their coming death, just like dogs and cats can in a city pound. It was the only time in my post-collegiate life that I considered becoming a vegetarian.

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So Graze In Peace, Molly. Here's hoping that your body overcomes all those growth hormones that were pumped into you, and you live another 20-25 years contentedly munching on grass.

Chicken Camouflage

This is for Harvey, who commented on the 05 May post that it would be impressive to see a chicken disguised as a hedge. I'm sure that's what we have here. You have to admit, the bird is doing an excellent shrubbery imitation. It could've fooled me.

Internet Problems

My modem gave up the ghost last night. At least I hope that's the problem. So I'm off tonight to buy a Motorola Surfboard, whatever that is. And we'll see if I'm savvy enough to figure how to install the thing. Something about having to call the ISP and tell them the serial number. Wherever that is found. . If successful, we'll be back in business by the time the second glass of red wine gets poured. If not, there will be light posting until someone techno-geekier than me stops by. .

-- UPDATE --

. Oh yeah! Look out, Geek Squad. I am a freakin' Modem Maestro!

Carrie Prejean

Meet Carrie Prejean. Aka, Miss California (for the moment); aka Runner-Up Miss USA; aka Homophobic Tart who drew the wrath of Perez Hilton (who the heck is he, anyway?) by coming out against same-sex marriages in the recent Miss USA contest. In the unlikely event that you've missed all this hoopla, here's a link. Not surprisingly, I'm a bit peeved at all this, but not for the reasons you think. Let's look at some of the juicier points in this controversy. . She gave a homophobic answer to Hilton's question regarding her view on legalizing same-sex marriages. That doesn't bother me, despite the fact that I'm 100% in disagreement with her. It's actually kinda refreshing to hear an honest answer to the questions in these contests. . Perez Hilton says she ought to give answers that "unite America", not divide it. Sorry, Perez. If that's the case, then the Miss USA contest should have stayed with the bimbo questions that Beauty Pageants usually ask. You know, "Do you like puppy dogs?" or "Are you in favor of happiness?" If you ask controversial questions, you have to expect controversial answers. . She claims she's a Bible-thumping Christian and yet she posed for that photo above. Okay, so she's a self-righteous hypocrite. If that was a capital offense, our churches would be empty. The photo(s) will almost certainly cost her her Miss California title. They may also cost her endorsement jobs from Moral-Majority-type organizations such as NOM. Or not. Heck, Bristol "octamom has nothing on me" Palin is doing the talk circuit advocating abstinence right now. Fundies will forgive a lot if your politics are right-wing. . She's lying when she says she was 17 when that photo was taken. Yeah, more on that in a bit. She seems to be vacillating between claiming she was naive and claiming that she's a model, and models do those sort of photo shoots. Let's face it, all that finishing 2nd Place in a Beauty Contest gets you is $10 from Monopoly's Community Chest. Carrie is yesterday's news. She needs jobs and she needs money. Do you think the Miss California title is going to supply either one? . The Miss California USA officials paid for Carrie's Boob-Job. Now we finally come to what irks me. Apparently, the Miss California "wardrobe department" paid a call to Carrie after the contest, and suggested she was a bit ...um... "lacking" in certain areas. So they bought her a boob-job. You can read about that here. Should pageant funds really be spent in things like this? I know it's all phony anyway, but shouldn't the winner be judged on what she is and not on what an extreme makeover might do for her? Is this how pathetic these contests have become? . And yeah, that photo above definitely is a post-operation one. She certainly isn't "lacking" there. Seveteen and naive, my a$$.

Art Appreciation Tuesday

Cuz you can never get too much appreciation of art.

I'm seeing a shrink(age)

Beginning yesterday, they reduced the Sunday comics section in The Arizona Republic from 6 pages to 4 (or 1½ full sheets to just one).

I guess I can live with that, as the five strips that got the axe were pretty yucky. Shylock Fox and his quizzes for kids, Zippy The Pinhead (which in 30 years I've found funny exactly twice), etc.

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What I can't live with is the shrinkage they did to the remaining strips. They're squeezing some of them in a half a page wide. That's okay if it's something minimalist like BC. But Doonesbury often has lots of text, and yesterday was no exception. Even with my reading glasses, it's anybody's guess what the three vets were talking about.

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The crazy thing is, the comics are the one thing everybody reads in a newspaper. Not the world news; not the business section, and not even the sports page. Start chopping away at the comics, and pretty soon it will be more convenient to read 'em all on-line. Then there isn't much reason to susbscribe to the paper, other than twice a week - once for the sales blurbs (Sunday) and once for the coupons (Wednesday).

Motivational Irony

Our gym is on the ground floor, so no escalators are needed. However, we all fight like the Dickens to get a parking space close to the gym doors, so we don't have to walk very far to get to the treadmills.

It's here !!

Five weeks after debuting in the UK, the mag has finally made it to Arizona. Maybe they shipped it by UPS-Ground. This be my kind of music, folks.

Wake up, North Carolina!

We've already introduced you to Arizona stoopid here, and Texas stoopid here. Now North Carolina brings you its own cretin - U.S. Representative Virginia Foxx. And wouldn't ya know it - she's a Republican! . In 1998, Matthew Shepard was brutally murdered in Laramie, Wyoming. His assailants beat him senseless, tied him to a fence, and left him to die. His offense? He was gay. . Today, Congress is debating an amendment that would expand the federal hate crimes law to cover acts motivated by sexual orientation. Incredibly, Ms. Foxx decided that Matthew's murder was a "hoax". You can read more details about Foxx's homophobic bigotry here. . Wake up, North Carolina!! How can you allow this dittohead moron to represent you?! Impeach her. Recall her. Deport her. Have her declared mentally incompetent. Vote her out. Declare her an embarrassment to the state (Arizona once did that with one of our governors). Choose any or all of the above. I don't care. Whatever is the fastest. Just get rid of the b*tch.