The Blog-O-Matic

Vacation

2009-05-19T13:24:00.000-07:00

My trip to europe was awesome.

Newest Member of Congress

2009-05-04T07:51:00.000-07:00

The Honorable Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.)

How To Avoid Swine Flu

2009-04-30T11:37:00.000-07:00

Mapping the Swine Flu

2009-04-28T12:13:00.000-07:00

Here's a great link from the BBC that maps recent swine flu outbreak.

Atlas Shrugged

2009-04-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

I'm reading it now. Kind of a tough read, but i'm not giving up on it just quite yet, b/c even though it's tough and slow going, it's still relevant. Here's an article about how the book sales have recently exploded due to the current economic crisis.

20 Facts About Death

2009-04-22T13:50:00.000-07:00

This is a pretty weird article written by LeeAundra Temescu at Discover Magazine.

1. The practice of burying the dead may date back 350,000 years, as evidenced by a 45-foot-deep pit in Atapuerca, Spain, filled with the fossils of 27 hominids of the species Homo heidelbergensis, a possible ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans.

2. There are at least 200 euphemisms for death, including "to be in Abraham's bosom," "just add maggots" and "sleep with the Tribbles" (a "Star Trek" favorite).

3. No American has died of old age since 1951.

4. That was the year the government eliminated that classification on death certificates.

5. The trigger of death, in all cases, is lack of oxygen. Its decline may prompt muscle spasms, or the "agonal phase," from the Greek word "agon," meaning "contest."

6. Within three days of death, the enzymes that once digested your dinner begin to eat you. Ruptured cells become food for living bacteria in the gut, which release enough noxious gas to bloat the body and force the eyes to bulge outward.

7. So much for recycling: Burials in America deposit 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid -- formaldehyde, methanol and ethanol -- into the soil each year. Cremation pumps dioxins, hydrochloric acid, sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide into the air.

8. Alternatively, a Swedish company, Promessa, will freeze-dry your body in liquid nitrogen, pulverize it with high-frequency vibrations and seal the resulting powder in a cornstarch coffin. They claim this "ecological burial" will decompose in six to 12 months.

9. Zoroastrians in India leave out the bodies of the dead to be consumed by vultures.
10. The vultures are now dying off after eating cattle carcasses dosed with diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory used to relieve fever in livestock.

11. Queen Victoria insisted on being buried with the bathrobe of her long-dead husband, Prince Albert, and a plaster cast of his hand.

12. If this doesn't work, we're trying in vitro! In Madagascar, families dig up the bones of dead relatives and parade them around the village in a ceremony called "famadihana." The remains are then wrapped in a new shroud and reburied. The old shroud is given to a newly married, childless couple to cover the connubial bed.

13. Sometimes, under the right conditions of temperature and humidity, fatty tissue of a buried body will turn to a soap-like substance called adipocere, or grave wax. Adipocere formation relies on a cold, damp environment and an absence of oxygen; once begun, this saponification can continue for centuries.

14. Well, yeah, there's a slight chance this could backfire: English philosopher Francis Bacon, a founder of the scientific method, died in 1626 of pneumonia after stuffing a chicken with snow to see if cold would preserve it.

15. For organs to form during embryonic development, some cells must commit suicide. Without such programmed cell death, we would all be born with webbed feet, like ducks.

16. In 1907, a Massachusetts doctor conducted an experiment with a specially designed deathbed and reported that the human body lost 21 grams upon dying. This has been widely held as fact ever since. It's not.

17. Buried alive: In 19th-century Europe there was so much anecdotal evidence that living people were mistakenly declared dead that cadavers were laid out in "hospitals for the dead" while attendants awaited signs of putrefaction.

18. Eighty percent of people in the United States die in a hospital.

19. More people commit suicide in New York City than are murdered.

20. It is estimated that 100 billion people have died since humans began.

Oh - My - Bama!

2009-04-22T09:34:00.000-07:00

interesting article in the Jerusalem Post about our president "talking" to dictators.

dick cheney is calling on the rest of the "secret memos" about "torture" to be released. he wants the results to be made public. interestingly, after this came out, Obama said he didn't want to look into the past and make this a political issue. right. you didn't want to make it a political issue. whatever.

i like dick cheney...yeah, i said it.... and of course he didn't want the memos released, but i think it's awesome that he's calling obama out....if you're going to release the memos in the name of freedom of information, release them all....don't cherry pick...

The Daily Show did a pretty funny thing on how socialism is "burdening" Sweden. It was funny. The problem lies in the fact that a bunch of college kids take it as news and think socialism is the way to go. What they don't tell you is that, up until a year ago, America used to lead the fight for freedom and human rights around the world. Sure, we screw up every now and then, but the good we achieve outweighs the bad....by far. Sweden is, well, Sweden. Everybody likes them, but let's face it, they're not leaders of the free world.

Thank you entertainment industry.

In addition, i'd like to see Sweden's pictures of Saturn and compare them to ours.

Happy Anniversary Harry

2009-04-20T08:49:00.000-07:00

The war is lost. Maybe he meant "Lost", like the t.v. show or something....

Lot's of comments like that going on during the last administration. I can't tell you how many times i heard "...the war can't be won".

And now, David Axelrod is calling the teaparties "unhealthy."

Are you kidding me? When did democrats monopolize the market on protesting?

Phil Spector - Killer Artist

2009-04-14T13:32:00.000-07:00

BBC did an interesting expose on the "Wall of Sound" technique of recording created by Phil Spector. Pretty interesting, if you're into recording music.

...but...

....now he's going to jail for murder. nice going dude.

Aargh You Rotten Scallywags

2009-04-13T17:15:00.000-07:00

Wow dude. i just heard how the rescue of the American ship captain went down. Three pirates. One gun pointed at the hostage. Three Navy Seal snipers on the open ocean. One simulaneous shot. Game over.

It's a good day for America.

Thank you military. Welcome home cap'n.

Warning: This link contains very explicit, crude language...by a puppet.

First Car Off Line After Bailout

2009-04-09T12:51:00.001-07:00

This made me laugh. Laughing is good.

Poll Data

2009-04-09T11:22:00.000-07:00

This latest poll from Rasmussen saddens me, but doesn't surprise me.

It will grow as time goes on.

I guess we're getting to the point that we want the government to take care of us rather than defend us and we're willing to sacrifice the things that we so often take for granted...liberty and freedom.

Either that, or we don't know how good we got it.

Maybe it's a little bit of both.

Of course, after the speeches made overseas by our president, who could blame Americans for thinking that, more often than not, we're not a noble country.

We're Sorry,Pirates...

2009-04-08T13:15:00.000-07:00

I hope our president doesn't leave out the pirates who captured a cargo ship with Americans on it on his "Apology Tour 2009."

Also, who knew that Fidel Castro was such a swell guy? What's the deal with that embargo we've had on them for decades? Was that all for nothing?

Nice.

Livin' in the 80's

2009-04-07T12:12:00.000-07:00

This awesome band i got going now, is turning out to be really relevant...politically speaking of course.

Obama is talking about getting rid of our nuclear arsenal with Russia...again....just like in the late 70's and 80's. Ultimately, trust became a factor...again.

This happened pretty much at the exact same time North Korea blew a rocket up over the Pacific.

The only difference now is, there are more countries that desire to have nukes, are closer to getting them and they don't really care where they hit. If you're going to have a nuke, i'd rather you know the exact coordinates of where you want to put it. But Kim Jong Il, let's just face it...the guy is a psycho. The most he should be allowed to have is a tiny cowboy hat and a cap gun. Bang! Bang!

Bailouts vs. Control

2009-04-02T15:40:00.000-07:00

Why should the government be able to control salaries of companies they give bailout money to? The bigger question is, why SHOULDN'T they?

Now i heard a rumor that Barney Frank is trying to put a bill through to put salary caps on ALL businesses. I think it's just that...a rumor. Right now, they're just targeting those businesses involved in the bailout.

Wouldn't that be something though? If government told all businesses what to pay their employees...

Nah...that would never happen. I'm just being paranoid.

Two words.

"Minimum Wage".

On The Road...

2009-03-31T07:07:00.000-07:00

I'm taking off for about a week to do some major, important scientific stuff.

So I'm gonna let this little guy watch over my music business while i'm gone. He's a good worker and never falls asleep on the job. At least, that's what his resume said.

Goodfellas...Art Critique by Tommy

2009-03-30T09:53:00.000-07:00

"One dog goes one way, the other dog goes the other way..."

"...and this guys saying, 'what do you want from me...?'"

You Gotta Be Kidding Me

2009-03-26T07:22:00.000-07:00

Government should stay out of sports. First baseball, now college football.

They got more important things to deal with. Of course, if they globalize everything, then they don't have to worry about it. I'm starting to see what it's all about. Less responsibility.

Obama, Clinton, Drugs, and the Brits

2009-03-25T18:34:00.000-07:00

Obama's administration is learning from newscasts. At least last night, he used a large video screen in place of the laterally placed teleprompters. During his first press conference, i got really tired of watching him look left and right. Finally, they put the speech directly in the middle so he could look directly into the camera. I guess they figured if your local news cast can do it, so can the feds.

Drug infused violence down on the Mexican border. Clinton says America's "insatiable appetite for drugs" is to blame. Hear that? It's our fault. Just like it's our fault the terrorists attacked us. Does anyone else see a pattern? I guess you could blame anything on anyone, but come on, take a stand. I'm getting tired of this "blame america first" thing....global warming, terrorism, drugs, bird flu, milli vanilli, etc...

It's pretty obvious this "war on drugs" is not working. My solution? Make all drugs legal. Not just weed. Before all the hippies start cheering, no federal funding to help those with drug abuse problems. Let Darwin take over.

Obama dismissed talk of a global currency last night, but Geithner sounds like he's open to the idea. Talk about a horrible idea. Nothing like not being able to determine what your own currency is worth. Scary. I didn't think CHANGE would be that dramatic when Obama took over, but now i'm starting to wonder.

I guess he also wants to cut deductions on contributions to charities. On the surface, that seems awful. Sometimes, things look bad at first, but they have positive effects that are immediately unseen. So, i'm trying to overlook it. But yeah....it looks bad. Real bad.

Finally, the Brits are doing some venting of their own...nice to blow off a little steam.

The British accent makes it cooler.

Obama on Leno

2009-03-20T08:10:00.000-07:00

Pretty good interview. The first half anyway...He did a pretty good job of explaining the situation in a way ordinary Americans like myself could understand....or at least he made it seem like he knows what's going on and is going to try to fix it. It was kind of annoying that after every time he would answer a question, the crowd applauded. Truly amazing.

The second half however, when Leno talked about how it made him nervous to think that the government could tax people they don't like, was pretty disturbing. He said he had a good answer for that...but he didn't. It sounded unapologetically socialist which disturbs me.

I guess he caught some heat for the special olympics comment. I knew there would be some backlash when he said it. He knew it to, that's why he apologized immediately to the head of the SO Committee after the interview. But this guy is amazing...If George Bush had made that comment, he would've gotten crushed by the liberals for being "out of touch" and insensitve. It would've been the headline seen around the world.

Still though, despite his crappy ability to read from the teleprompter, he's a cool dude....and every once in a while, he says something that makes me crack up...

Don't Just Blame AIG

2009-03-17T13:42:00.000-07:00

AIG handed out like $1 million bonuses to at least 70 people....after "We the People" gave them money.

Yeah. We're all pissed.

This article should piss you off more. "While the Senate was constructing the $787 billion stimulus last month, Dodd added an executive-compensation restriction to the bill. That amendment provides an “exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009” -- which exempts the very AIG bonuses Dodd and others are now seeking to tax."

So why are all the policy makers surprised by this?

And then you got Sen. Chuck Schumer vowing to take the money back:

Let's review:

Government taxes us. Gives out money to "save our country" from finanicial ruin. When they don't like how it is used, they take it back. Even though they laid out a clear plan about how it was to be used in the first place. Then they make big speeches like this about how they're going to take care of the situation...political theater.

I'm troubled by the amount of people lately that have said to me that people can't take care of themselves and the government needs to take care of them. They mean "this government" needs to take care of them.

You want these guys to take care of you? Are you serious? I feel like I just took a handful of crazy pills.

Economy Fundamentals: Sound (Obama) vs. Strong (McCain)

2009-03-17T07:02:00.001-07:00

Obama wins again. Robert Gibbs is here to explain to us why:

Whew! That was a tough one!

At any rate, if John McCain was "out of touch" at the time he said that, then Obama is well beyond out of touch...he's on the moon.

Gen Z

2009-03-13T13:03:00.000-07:00

When I read this article, a little piece of me died inside.

Pictures of baby animals make me feel better.

what a little sissy this guy is. he's got a great haircut though.

Why I'm Not Press Secretary

2009-03-13T12:30:00.000-07:00

China's getting worried about loaning us money.
Here the White House's press secretary's explanation:

Translation:

"C'mon man. You KNOW us. We're good for it."

What Does "Crisis" Mean?

2009-03-13T06:30:00.000-07:00

This is weird. President Obama is saying that the national economic "crisis is not as bad as we think."

so I went to dictionary.com to look up the definition of the word "crisis."

"a condition of instability or danger, as in social, economic, political, or international affairs, leading to a decisive change."

Now obviously, after scaring the pants off of us the last several weeks in speeches, this is a crude attempt to instill confidence in Americans.

a friend of mines facebook entry says that when he's not making speeches, the Dow Jones goes up and that he should "stay away from the teleprompter."

interesting point. i think it would be better if he reversed his policy on making sure we have a "more transparent government." it's probably better if we all didn't know how screwed up things are. i liked it better when our government was more "secretive."