Windows 7 upgrade version: The dos and don'ts

Windows 7 upgrade version: The dos and don'ts

(Click here for the story at http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10388567-56.html)

From C-net magazine

Here’s a big one.

Don’t.

· Don’t install it.

· Don’t buy it.

· Don’t try it.

· Don’t bother.

If whatever you have right now is working for you, keep it and save your money.

Spare yourself the frustration , the aggravation and the hassle.

Microsoft has never introduced an operating system that has worked the way it was promised right out of the box.

· Didn’t happen with 3.0

· Didn’t happen with 3.11 -wfw

· Didn’t happen with Win 95 (crashed at the opening demo with Bill gates on live TV)

· Didn’t happen with Win 98

· Didn’t happen with 98 SE

· Didn’t happen with ME

· Didn’t happen with NT

· Didn’t happen with 2000

· Didn’t happen with XP

And we all know what happened at the release of Vista.

There is no reason to think they will be any better at fulfilling this promise with their newest offering either.

If they were any good at new products there would not be some 2 gazillion-billion knowledge base articles about how to fix the OS.

Do this.

Wait.

· Wait for the dust to settle down.

· Wait for the bugs to work out.

· Wait for the install failures to be fixed.

· Wait for the inevitable Service pack to fix whatever it not right.

· Wait for the hubbub to die down so the truth gets exposed.

A few months from now all the bugs will be out in the open, they will have released a slew of patches and then it will be ready for you to own.

Not one day before that.

Thankx for reading my rant !

bigmike

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

23 College Presidents make more tha 1 $ Million dollars

It is no wonder that tuiton costs so much today.

All the BS and the garbage they tell you about what it costs to educate a child (or yourself for that matter) all boils down to this :

Its about money.

Money for college presidents.
Money for patents.
Money for research to sell the patents.
Money for athletics.

It ain't about our future.
It ain't about education.
It ain't about society.

If it was it would not be about money, it would be about a quality education.

Whatever.

Thankx for reading my rant !

bigmike

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

Thomas Paine's American Revolution

 

Here is a video every American should watch, whether you agree with it or not.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeYscnFpEyA

 

 

Thankx for reading my rant ! 

 

bigmike

 

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/  

 

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

Now What ?

Now what ?

Check out the new answrtek.com

 

Check out the new and improved answrtek.com

 

you can find it at :  http://answrtek.com

 

Thankx for reading my ad ! 

 

bigmike

 

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/  

 

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

A vacation in an alternate universe

 

The man in the bed was a constant dreamer. He lived to daydream and ponder and could often be found with his head in the clouds , having no connection to his surroundings for hours on end. Today was no exception. He was frequently confused. After all, he was a man.

 

As the light came streaming through the front window, the sun hit him in the face and set off the inevitable but very slow waking process common in humans, he was in the last bit of a very exciting dream. "Shift, shift, make the turn, outrun the Russians !! "He was Jason Bourne in this one and it started to fade. Once eye clicked open, the other one stuck closed with what felt like a tasty jelly. All at once he sat straight up in bed "What the Hell", he exclaimed and then little by little his consciousness returned. The dream slowly began to fade. He blinked a few times, coughed, and then scratched. A primal stretch came over his body. He looked around the bedroom in the dim morning light. There to the right just as he had imagined, was a clock radio he couldn't place. Looking left he saw a nightstand he knew he had never saw before. A trash can with a big liquor bottle and fast food trash overflowing in one corner, a tiny refrigerator in the other. Cheesy curtains and a generic TV nightstand combo in front of him. "This blanket is strange, the pillows are different, this bed is all wrong", he thought. His mouth tasted like the bottom of a trashcan.

 

Today, started out like no other day, he thought,  as it slowly began to come into focus and dawn on his conscious being.

 

"I am ", he thought" in a strange bedroom, I've never seen before". He decided to investigate. Birds chirping in the background. Dogs barking in the distance. The roar and rumble of cars and trucks barely heard over the din of the TV. Throwing the blanket back, he looked out the front bedroom window. "How curious, I don't recognize a thing I am looking at", he pondered. "Ah, there is my car, down there in a parking lot". A view off in the distance of the Ocean, a big stretch of white sandy beach with a few early morning sun worshippers walking by the water. He looked down with his one good bleary blood-shot eye and realized he was stark naked. "Why do I have lipstick smeared all over my chest, and where did these scratches come from?", he was beside himself with no answers to all the questions. "Did he meet a girl and come back to her place? "Oh man, I have to figure this out and come up with some kind of good believable story to cover it, my wife is going to be pissed if she finds out about this one !"

 

He decided to look around this curious room and try to figure out where he was. Padding on bare feet , he went into the bathroom. "This just keeps getting weirder", he thought. Towels, washcloths, and clothes dotted the floor. Two Newspapers stacked on the floor next to the toilet. A couple of magazines were laying next to the Television. He noted a whipped cream can and a produce bag on the floor. Strawberries, bananas and cucumbers were in the refrigerator. The sink in the bathroom smelled like a horse farm. His clothes were strewn all over the room , battered about like he had taken them off in a strong windstorm. A bra and a swimming suit were hanging in the bathtub. "What did I do yesterday", he wondered. "How in the hell did I end up here?" "I wonder how much trouble I am in this time?", these thoughts started tumbling through his head, raging as a wildfire. The closet in the corner had his clothes, two suitcases and some female garments in it. The was all kinds of girl junk in the bathroom with lotions, crèmes, makeup's hair products, sunscreen, insect repellant and various other bottles of female goop.

 

One razor with one can of shaving cream looked to be the male contribution.

 

He started to imagine a scenario where he had spent the night drinking and chasing women. Maybe he had met up with a friendly girl, who had put him up for the evening. "I wonder if I will see her again?", he pondered. "When I do , will I know what she looks like?", "Will she recognize me?", "Why does my mouth taste this bad?" Just them the lock on the door started to rattle, he panicked. He was naked and somebody was coming in. He jumped out of bed and started looking for his clothes.

 

Just as he was pulling up his underwear, She entered the room. "Morning honey", she said. "I have breakfast from the Mickey D's across the lot., How did you sleep ?"

 

He was confused. His wife ? Mickey D's? across the lot ? Oh hell,  wait a minute",  he thought "Ocean?, I live 500 miles from the Ocean. Where the hell am I?, what is going on?", man now he was worried. "What did we do with whipped cream and produce?". His mouth tasted like he licked an ashtray and swallowed the butts. He didn't smoke. Did he travel in time and space? Was he in an alternate universe? He knew he had to answer and try to make a little sense. She couldn't know he had no clue where he was or if this was real. "Hi honey", he said, I slept pretty good , I guess". She smiled and said "Well get up and have some coffee and eat your breakfast and we'll go take a swim in the Ocean, and don't waste a lot of time getting going either, because I want to lay in the sun before it gets too hot. Remember you only got 5 days for this vacation, and even though this is just a Motel 6, I want to get as much out of these 5 days as I can."

 

He knew then that he was in an alternate universe, OR maybe it is possible he thought,that he should not have put the big bottle of Jack Daniels up in the front seat of the car with him as she was driving down here. Long trips had always made him nervous. She was a very bad driver.

 

Today, started out like no other day alright.

 

"But why, " he thought, "Does my mouth taste like the bottom of a trashcan, and what the hell was the produce for?"

 

 

Thankx for reading my rant , ...er, ah, story ! 

 

bigmike

 

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/  

 

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

 

 

How to solve any State or Federal Budget crisis - Easy as Apple Pie

 

I listen to politicians and pundits go on and on forever about how the government is going to solve the current  budget crisis of mammoth proportions because the economy is down, revenues are down etc etc. I don't think any of these people we elected have a clue , and if they were on Wheel of Fortune, they would buy a Z and call it a vowel. Listen it is not that hard. The main problem is that they (politicians and the like) do not think of the Budget or Revenue as real money. To you and to me, when we talk about our household budget, we are talking about the money we earn from a paycheck and it is real , it is tangible and it has a beginning and an end point. We start off with no money. We earn money from work. We spend money paying bills. What is left over (if any) is a surplus, if none is left over, we are overdrawn and we owe the bank money.

 

The reason we can afford to think this simply is because it is not difficult to understand and it is real and it is effective to do it this way.

 

It actually is that simple.

 

Spend money you do not have and it is either credit (as in credit cards) or it is theft. Spend money from your bank account that you don't have in the bank and see what the bank brings charges against you for. Very easy to explain, very easy to understand. Real worry and real Pain happens when you do not have the money to pay the light bill or do not have money for groceries and you will get sued if you do not pay for the credit card. Trust me.

 

If you borrow more money to cover a shortfall this year, payments to cover this loan increase in future years. This debt increase may solve it this year, but will make it worse in future years as the payments towards the debt increase.  This is much the same as running up a big credit card balance. Using a credit card may help you now, but later on when you have to start paying for it, you have to use real money to cover the expense. If you raise taxes to cover a shortfall in revenue, the folks who pay the taxes make reductions in other areas because it is real money and there is only so much of it to go around. The way we treat it is , if you raise my taxes, I take less of a vacation (for example) and your revenues from vacationers is less because I had less to spend, and I had to make a reduction somewhere. There is a defined amount of money to spend. This is what is known as the self-fulfilling prophecy. You make me pay more, therefore I have less to spend so therefore I spend less and you (the Government) still have less money to work with and the problem is not any smaller, it is just paid a different way.

 

Simple huh? I think if I can figure this out and you can understand it, then anybody can. I also think this is what average people do every day when managing real money.They need to treat the budget just like you and I do. They need to treat it like real money and they don't. They forgot that every dime they spend comes from you and me to begin with.

 

The Politicians would have you believe that it is a whole lot more complex than I've explained. The problem (at least at the Federal level) is if you run out of money, you either borrow more or you print more. At the State level you either borrow more or you try to raise taxes to cover the costs or you try to adjust the money you spend to meet the expected level of revenue. In all cases , they forgot to treat money coming in as real dollars and cents. Here is why none of the three things mentioned above actually work. It seems as if it does because of bookkeeping but it really doesn't because the issue never goes away and we keep hearing about it year after year. Using any or all of these methods just extends the problem into the future. 

 

If you are the Federal government and you decide that you need more money and you decide to print more to increase the supply, it makes the problem worse immediately on two levels. First because the money supply is larger, every dollar in that supply is worth a smaller amount. Read this simple fraction explanation and you'll see what I mean. If you have one (1) of something and there is five (5) of them overall, then you have one-fifth of the overall supply. If you have one (1)  of something and there is six (6) of them in the overall supply, then you have one sixth of the total supply. The amount you control is worth an amount smaller in the overall supply. When you hear about the cost of the dollar or how the dollar rates against a foreign currency, this is what they are talking about. Importing goods costs more because you have to use more of your money to pay for it. Second, because the value of the money you control is worth a smaller amount, you have to spend more of it to purchase goods and services. This is because businesses raise prices to be able to retain the same amount they are used to in order to make a profit at the level they need to continue to do business. This is called inflation. When you hear someone talk about "Buying Power" of money, this is what they are talking about.

 

The next thing they always try seems pretty logical, yet really is not a viable solution because it never takes fixed costs into account properly and it over values items which we cannot afford based on the revenues we have to work with. Certain things in any government budget just won't go down all that much when trying to reduce expenses by making cuts across the board. Things like the costs of housing prisoners cannot really be reduced. What are you going to do, Have less guards, or have less prisons to house the same number of prisoners? It is a silly proposition and it never works. Ever.

 

First, If the President or a Governor says to his staff "Reduce expenses by Ten Percent (10 %) in every department", they may make some changes, however they will never really make substantial change because they do not really control the purse strings. It sounds good on the News or in the newspaper, but makes very little difference because nothing is ever eliminated from the budget. You just end up with the same things at a smaller level.

 

Second, The Legislatures (or Congress) controls what is spent by appropriating funds to programs. If the head of State (The Governor or President for example) makes too many changes they then just re-write the legislation to make it a law to be enforced by the courts or take it away from the Head of Governments control. This is due to the influence afforded selected groups of people routinely called "special interests". You then run into the NIMBY effect. Everybody thinks we need a new prison or a new waste dump, as long as its NOT In My BackYard.

 

We would never have to cut the number of teachers, fire policemen, close fire stations or provide less Children's services if they had the guts to do one one thing right.

 

Every item in every budget should be assigned a priority in the budget just like you and I do. If we have less money, what do we do? We go to the movies less, We spend less money at Christmas, We take less expensive vacations, we buy cheaper goods instead of expensive ones. We don't reduce our spending across the board by ten percent, we eliminate expenses we cannot afford until we spend the required amount less. Here is what they ought to do , yet never will do, because of the influence of "Special Interests".

 

Lets say there are 2000 (two thousand) items in a State (or any Government) budget. There is probably more but lets say it is 2000. Put the highest priority items at the top and start with Number One (1) and then prioritize and number every one of them until everything in the budget is on the list, numbered One (1) through Two Thousand (2000) . Along with each item, list the cost of each item next to it. Now put the accountants to work and figure out how much real money we have coming in as close as we can figure it. Classify every budget expense as one of three things. One is a need (absolutely must have), next is a desire ( just would like to have), next is a want (Would like but could do without). Cut all wants first. If that is not enough, cut out the desires. If it gets bad enough, then you have to cut needs. If you absolutely must have all the needs, then you can raise taxes. Adjust each line item to the level on what is left to levels we can afford and if that is not enough, start with the last item on the list and eliminate it. Keep eliminating until you have your expenses at the same level as revenue. Understand , if we do this, we are going to eliminate things that would be nice to have, but cannot at this time afford to have. We may not be able to give block grants to build a new park or have some arcane study done concerning some state insect , but we would have teachers and etc at the level we have to have. I suspect if politicians would do this , we would never lay off a teacher or a firefighter or a Police Officer ever again. I also think if they would look at it like this, we wouldn't mind paying a little more in taxes, because we would know why it is necessary to raise them.

 

Politicians will never do this because they have forgot that their job is to represent us and not to do things that will ensure that they will get elected in the next election.

 

What do you think ?

 

Thankx for reading my rant ! 

 

bigmike

 

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/  

 

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

 

 

What's the big fat hairy deal about a guy, his wife and their eight kids anyway?

 

Hey man, I seem have a hard time understanding a lot of things.

 

I mean I get the facts of a situation, sometimes though , no matter how hard I try, I just don't and can't get the why.

 

Here's what I mean.

 

You ever watch Cops?

 

Is it just me or does the crook NEVER get away? My question is then, "Why do they run?", I mean do they think they are going to be faster than the radio and the helicopter? Are they going to be the first ones this year to successfully elude the police, baggy pants and all? Why didn't somebody tell them they needed to watch this show. I mean If you are a criminal or have criminal tendencies, you need to know that most of the time (what?? 95 %) When the cops start chasing you, you ain't getting away. Factually they probably know they can't get away, yet when faced with capture, they run? This is the part I don't get. All that is going to happen is not only will you be arrested, you will also be hot, tired and sweaty in the back seat of the car.

 

Is it worth all that ?

 

I think not.

 

So I get the fact that there is a TV show about a Guy and His wife and their 8 (Eight) kids. It is your not so basic Reality TV show and it is goofy as hell. Supposedly 9.8 million viewers tuned in last week (http://tlc.discovery.com/tv/jon-and-kate/jon-and-kate.html) because they are having marital issues and the burning questions in life are are all centered around are they going to stay together? Who is having an affair? Is he really a wus? Is she really a shrew? and so forth and so on until I want to puke......arrrrgghhh!!!

 

A couple of years ago my wife and I had :

 

Me, my wife, 2 Daughters, 2 Sons, 1 Son in Law, I Grandson, 2 dogs and 4 cats under one roof in one 5 bedroom house + also various friends of one of my sons for various lengths of time.

 

It was kind of like ME and HER Plus Twelve (sometimes Thirteen) !

 

So I get the fact that lots of folks are watching this show. OK, so many of you tune into this dramarama and live vicariously through the wickedness of the wife on this show and wish you could beat the crap out of your husband verbally, every day all day long like she does. The men , if any, who watch this are just clueless morons, who go though life saying Yes Dear at every opportunity, trying to figure out where it all went wrong.

 

What I don't get is the why? Why is this worthy of your time. Why do you care and what makes you want to know more every week?

 

That is what I don't get.

 

I would have already probably have been divorced, and been in jail because I would have smacked Dr. Phil in the mouth for talking trash to me about leaving this insanity, once I had divorced her.

 

Oh well. Can you imagine what the child support obligation would be? It would be cheaper to marry her lawyer, I think.

 

It had to have went something like this for the poor schmuck who is the Dad on this show when he was younger:

 

1.    See Hot Chick

2.    Date Hot Chick

3.    Make Hot Chick like me.

4.    Get Hot Chick to have sex with me (Dang , she won't do it without a wedding ring).

5.    Marry Hot chick so she will have sex with me.

6.    Hot chick gets pregnant.

7.    Oh crap, its eight babies. Are you friggin kiddin me? What the hell am I gonna do now?

8.    I know, start a TV show. That'll at least pay the friggin diaper bills.

 

 

Whatever.

 

Empty nesting looks pretty good right now I gotta tell ya !

 

Cue the credits, laugh until sides hurt, fade to black.

 

Thankx for reading my rant ! 

 

bigmike

 

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/  

 

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

 

 

Fox TV cancelled another good show, I am not surprised

Wrote this to Fox Television concerning the cancellation of Terminator : the Sarah Conner Chronicles. I know it won't do any good, but at least I get to vent.

 

If you like you can comment to them at askfox@fox.com

 

-bigmike

 

Fox,

 

I understand you cancelled this show (Terminator : the Sarah Conner Chronicles). I do not hold out any hope you will re-think it, rebrand it or sell it to another network. We only watch a couple of your shows anyway because most of them are crap. With most of them, when your promo comes on I cannot get to the mute button fast enough while I look for something else to watch. Seems like every time you have a good show or the potential for one you figure out a way to screw it up. My opinion? Bad move on your part. Only 5 million viewers? Give me a break, this has nothing to with ratings. This is just a money move, which no viewer respects nor cares about. We could care less that you could not figure out how to finance it, promote it or contain the costs. This was just dumb and is another dumb move in a long line of dumb moves that your programming continues to exhibit.

 

Instead of giving us pretty good TV to replace it with, you decide to go with more reality junk, which is cheaper to make? Whatever. I am stunned at how bad your schedule is and insulted at what you call good TV.

 

I'll still watch the shows that I like that are on FOX (House, Bones, Fringe, Family Guy) but the hour you opened up by cancelling Terminator is going to be taken up in my household by another network, as we can't stand the celebrity cooking,  reality , animation tripe you call programming. It just goes to show me that you guys are out of touch and do not understand the DVR/TiVo owning viewing public. This is another downhill FOX don't matter anymore move as far as I am concerned.

 

For whatever it is worth, here is our take of your shows in our house:

 

• Are you smarter than a 5th grader? Good for one show novelty and then boring. Dumb show. Foxworthy is good but the show sucks.
• Bones? Great show. We watch this one.
• The Cleveland Show? You are kidding right? NO way. A boring character with his own show. I smell flop. Immediately and painful. Junk.
• Cops? Only when nothing else interesting is on, and then can't watch a whole episode.
• Dollhouse? No thank you. Junk.
• Don't forget the lyrics? I forgot to watch. Junk. Insulting.
• Family Guy? Irreverent and funny. Watch every so often.
• Fringe? Great show. Watch every week. Take this one away and lose another hour in my household.
• Glee? This has to be the goofiest concept ever. You actually think this is what we want? I hope this one dies quickly.
• Hells Kitchen? I wish I knew this "chef", what's his name, so I could smack him in the mouth. If he talked to me like he does to those idiots he insults, I'd cut him with one of his own knives. What a crappy show. This could be called dereliction of programming. Cannot express adequately how much we dislike this guy, his show(s) and we would never eat at one of his restaurants.
• Hole in the wall? Hole in the schedule. No friggin way.
• House? Best show on TV. Can't wait to see how you eventually screw this one up.
• King of the Hill? Must be a small hill. Glad its gone.
• Kitchen Nightmares? See Hells kitchen. I can't hate this guy enough. A re-run of Gunsmoke would be better.
• Lie to me? You ALREADY did when you said this was actually a TV show. JUNK. CRAP. USELESS.
• Mad TV ? When I was 12 maybe.
• Mental? You already are because you think this is good TV.
• The Moment of Truth?, Uh, No. Maybe you should Lie to me.
• Osbournes re-loaded? Amazingly bad. A real stinker. Better than a test pattern and that's all.
• Prison Break? Uggh. Couldn't care less. Wish they would get shot.
• Secret Millionaire? Secret garbage television. Sponsors really give you money for ad time for this crap?
• Sit down, Shut Up? ...and go away. Fast.
• Terminator? You cancelled it, was good TV and you decided that two kitchen shows were better. Who's running this network? Are monkeys throwing darts at a board?
• TalkShow? See Sit Down and Shut Up.
• 'til Death. Hopefully soon.

 

Your new shows?

• Brothers? You are mental. More crap.
• Human Target. Maybe. Wait and see.
• More to Love? No. There isn't.
• Past Life? maybe. Time will tell. Hope it is better than the promos. Probably not.
• Sons of Tucson ? Maybe a show about Hells angels would be better, got to be funnier.
• Wanda Sykes? Maybe. Only if she is funny. That only happens every so often. Probably not.

 

Your continuing series?

• American Idol ? Only if Simon Cowell were to die (or leave the show). Fat chance. Can't help it the lemmings love this one. Makes no sense. Otherwise we can't stand it.
• American Dad? How much animation do you think we can take ? NO.
• Americas most wanted? Occasionally. See Cops.
• So you think you can dance? So you think you can program? Uuugghh. Looks bad, smells bad, tastes bad, Is bad.

and as Far as 24 goes- Never watched one minute. Tripe, junk, stupid premise. Total turn off.

 

Anyway, you used to get 5 hours a week or so in my house and now you get no more than 4, because the rest of your schedule is drivel and is painful to watch and is money based (what it costs to produce) versus what is good to watch.

 

Obviously you don't care, so its a good thing I at least get to vent in email format.

Thankx for reading my rant ! 

 

bigmike

 

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/  

 

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

 

Where's the Beef ?

 

The Intellectuals are intellectually lazy, in an intellectually lazy sort of way. Once again and Just like usual. How do they get the title intellectual anyway? They seem stupid and ignorant to me.

 

In the past few weeks the California beauty queen, Carrie Prejean has been absolutely excoriated (excoriate - condemn: express strong disapproval of; "We condemn the racism in South Africa"; "These ideas were reprobated" ) in the press and in public opinion because she didn’t answer a question from a blowhard blogger (Perez Hilton), the way he thought it should have been answered.

 

I find the debate to be overly silly and "kiss me you fool" dramatic in a William Shatner sort of way and charged with made up, over the top , who cares so called tension , but also find it to be perfect example and a telling indicator of why the media is biased against a conservative point of view.

 

I also think that Perez Hilton (Hilton, whose real name is Mario Lavandeira, best known as a so called celebrity blogger who has branched off into gay rights advocacy) to be a pretty fine example of a blathering bleeding heart liberal idiot, whose fifteen minutes of fame was over 90 minutes ago, who should just shut up and go away already. I would go so far as to say he is a non-issue, a non celebrity, and shouldn't have even been there in the first place. For crying out loud, this clown runs a gay themed celebrity gossip web site. What exactly qualifies him to be a judge of a female beauty pageant anyway? Hell he doesn't even like women in the first place !(I digress.)

 

Hilton asked Miss California's Carrie Prejean her thoughts on legalizing gay marriage during the Miss USA 2009 pageant, which aired live on NBC. The quote attributed to him was “"Vermont recently became the fourth state to legalize same-sex marriage," he said.”Do you think every state should follow suit, why or why not." Her answers to his question, while not elegant and certainly not spoken all that effectively, were nonetheless forthright and fully considered.

 

The quote attributed to her is "I think it's great Americans are able to choose one or the other," she said. "We live in a land that you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage. And you know what in my country, in my family I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody there, but that's how I was raised and that's how I think it should be, between a man and a woman."

 

Apparently, some people including Mr. Hilton were somehow offended by Miss Prejean’s answer. Their immediate reaction and then the continuing reaction from the crowd and by absentia the media was, to put it mildly, negative and somewhat spiteful. Boo - Hiss, (I hear cat scratch fever playing somewhere)

 

This is the interesting part.

 

Donald Trump, the owner of the pageant gets into the act because he has to decide if she can keep her crown (the "Beauty" award) because of some racy photos and he is pulled into the debate on her position towards gay marriage. Trump said he and other pageant officials had reviewed racy photos of Prejean and decided they were acceptable."We are in the 21st century. We have determined the pictures taken are fine," he said, adding that "in some cases the pictures were lovely." What the hell is a beauty award anyway? They apparently give them a crown of some sort, that rewards their genetics and chosen plastic surgeon. I don't get it. Moving on.

 

Intellectually, many of the negative voices that could be heard were busy with the “Another bubble head”, “Another victim of Rush Limbaugh school of Republican mind control”, “She is intolerant”, "She is a gay basher", "She is against gay rights" and etc and other misplaced eclectic diatribes. Because those intellectually lazy folks didn’t support her answer and did not really listen to her response, they immediately dismissed her right to have an opinion and dismissed her opinion as wrong.

 

The media then joined the cause and repeated how negative the perception was of her because her answer seemed to be out of touch with mainstream thought and how she must be a Christian Conservative (like that is somehow a bad thing) because liberals just don’t think like this. It went on and on and on and on and on , until finally , this is where we are at. They say because of her opinion, the media says, the common perception is that she is wrong, Hilton is right to be shocked and stunned and appalled and Trump should throw her out for the quote and for the photos (racy photos not disclosed to the pageant). Public opinion is said to be that she should be disqualified and should have to give up her crown and the intellectuals are absolutely in heaven. They have chosen their target because she does not agree with their liberal open-minded position and she is a gay bashing intolerant bigot who supposedly has an anti gay bias. She is raked over the coals for the next 2 or 3 weeks. Hallelujah !

 

What a load of crap ! I would have lost my cool and said a few curse words they would have had to bleep out, if it was me. To her credit she kept pretty calm and just expressed her opinion. No way I would have been that poised.

 

I should clear something up.

The intellectuals and the media "Allegedly" have open-minded liberal position(s).

Their stated opinion(s) however are not supported by the facts.

Factually, they actually are what they are complaining about.

 

Class,  it is time for a pop quiz !

 

For extra credit name the person(s) who made the following statement(s):

 

• "I do not support gay marriage. Marriage has religious and social connotations, and I consider marriage to be between a man and a woman." (1)
• "This is an issue that I think helps to describe who we are  [Marriage] connotes to so many people a religious and not just civil element, and that includes me." (2)
• "My view is that we should try to disentangle what has historically been the issue of the word ‘marriage,' which has religious connotations to some people, from the civil rights that are given to couples, in terms of hospital visitation, in terms of whether or not they can transfer property or any of the other -- Social Security benefits and so forth." (3)

 

Do you know who said these things?

 

Was it : 

 

Rush Limbaugh?

Nope.

 

Nancy Grace?

Nope.

 

George Bush?

Nope.

 

James Carville?

Nope.

 

Mary Matlin?

Nope.

 

Bill Clinton?

Hell No.

 

Bill O'Reilly?

Nope.

 

Glen Beck?

Nope.

 

Ann Coulter?

Nope.

 

Sean Hannity?

Nope.

 

Dick Chaney?

Not even.

 

George Will?

Nope.

 

Al Gore?

Nope.

 

 

These are all quotes (exact quotes) spoken by our President, Commander in Chief, and Chief Left Leaning Bleeding Heart Liberal, the one, the only, Barrack Obama.

 

All of them reflect his current positions.

 

(Gasp ! Says its not true, bigmike, say its not true!)

 

1.                [from the Logo presidential debate]

2.                [source: cnn]

3.                [from the Logo presidential debate]

 

 

Trump said "It's the same answer the president of the United States gave; it's the same answer many people gave,”, "She gave an honorable answer; she gave an answer from her heart."

 

So, let’s see. Hmmmmm......This comes down to this then.

 

Her answer was honest, forthright and fully qualified and is her opinion.

Check.

 

Her right to that opinion is covered under the Constitution of the USA. (You know, that bothersome one about free speech and such?)

Check. 

 

I do not happen to agree with her.

Check.

 

Let em marry, who cares?

Check.

 

Why does it even matter?

Check.

 

Doesn't affect me one way or the other.

Check.

 

How gay marriage destroys the family is beyond me.

Check.

 

Rick Santorum started this crap and he should just shut the hell up. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Santorum)

Check.

 

Being a beauty queen (with or without an opinion) affects me in no way.

Check. 

 

Her answer almost exactly duplicates the position stated by Barack Obama.

Check and double check.

Hell triple Check.

 

The so-called intellectuals, pounced upon her position and said because of it she is unqualified to be a beauty queen, that she is an intolerant gay bashing bigot.

Check. (No , really that is what they said, I'm not making it up !) 

Stupid, wrong and ignorant of the facts, but grudgingly I have to admit, Check.

It is their stupid position.

 

Barack Obama is a supporter of gay marriage.

Uh NO, not check.

He supports civil unions and new legislation, and does not now nor has ever supported gay marriage.

 

Obama first announced his opposition to the measure only in response to media inquiries. He said the nation should recognize lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans “with full equality under the law.” For example, Obama called the ballot measure (CA Prop. 8) “divisive and discriminatory” and concluded by congratulating “all of you who have shown your love for each other by getting married these last few weeks.” Left unstated was that Obama has declined to endorse gay marriage, saying that civil unions would suffice to protect partners’ rights.

 

If you believe that Barack Obama’s position on this is much different than Ms. Prejean's, then I submit that you and people like you are just seeing and hearing what you want to see and hear without regard to the facts. It is disingenuous and is ignorant of the facts to suggest otherwise. Just because you do not like the forum or the facts does not mean you can change them. Factually, there are more similarities between Mr. Obama’s opinion and Ms. Prejean’s than differences. 

 

It is however intellectually lazy and politically expedient to see otherwise. 

 

To the media it just makes good copy without regard to right or wrong.

The fourth estate my fat hairy butt. What a bunch of incompetent nincompoops.

 

I find the drama interesting. I find the intellectuals' argument to be pure unadulterated Horses**t. Just like always and just like usual. As the old lady in the Wendy's commercial used to say "Where's the beef?" For them it is more about perception equals reality than it is about facts substantiated by positions. Liberals never met a fact they could not ignore. It is easier to have an opinion that is based on perceptions than it is to have a position based on the facts. Her opinion ,while almost exactly the same position expressed by our president is seen as intolerant and he is seen as a supporter of gay marriage. The intellectually lazy commentators and the media immediately broadened the context to include all things gay, but that was not the question and it was never discussed.  

 

As the old saying goes "Don't confuse me with the facts !".

 

Take a few minutes and look at the following references: It's not everything you can find, but it will point out to you exactly what the problem with the reporting is and how the perception of Obama is skewed so badly by the press.

 

Perez Hilton owes Ms. Prejean an apology. I hope she doesn't hold her breath waiting for one.

 

She should have just said "World Peace", smiled and said "Am I right?"

At least then it would met the perception of ..."Stupid beauty queen gives ignorant answer. Film at 11".

 

I never thought I would ever say this but "Way to go Donald !" (not that it matters at all).

 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/civil_rights/

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Prejean+quote&aq=f&oq=

http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/quotes/stars/carrie-prejean/

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=perez+Hilton+Prejean&aq=f&oq=

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/Television/Story?id=7381893&page=1

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Donald+Trump+Prejean&aq=f&oq=

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1897637,00.html

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=obama+quote+gay+marriage&aq=f&oq=

http://equalitygiving.org/Barack-Obama-on-the-issues-Equality-Quotes-Gay-Rights

http://www.ontheissues.org/Barack_Obama.htm

 

 

Thankx for reading my rant ! 

 

bigmike

 

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/  

 

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

 

The Headline says "President Obama advised not to replace David Souter with judge"

Huh?

Oh yeah, this one makes a whole lotta sense and proves once again that our astute politicians are thinking about what is best for America at all times.

A sitting Supreme Court justice (David Souter) is retiring this year. One of nine of them.

The headline says " President Obama advised not to replace David Souter with judge".

You can read this story at :http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/05/04/2009-05-04_dems_court_outsider_tell_bam_not_to_pick_fed_judge_for_justice_souters_job.html

-Bigmike

Let me see if I can fathom this logic. Not sure I understand where these wackos are coming from now.

This position they are talking about is a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.

Of the United States of America.

In the top Federal court.

Where cases are decided that ultimately set policy, decide laws, and interpret the Constitution.

Of the United States of America.

Nope, I can't see where this person would need any judicial experience (Pay attention kids this is what is called "sarcasm. Can you say Sarcasm? I knew that you could"). Do you?

How about we call my mechanic, who struggles with weighty issues such as how to best fix my brakes to be on the Supreme court? Or maybe we could see if the guy who drives the trash truck in my area would like a cushy federal job? Maybe we call on the guy who maintains the grass at the school across the street from my house? All these people are fairly smart, have great jobs now, have to make a real living and have real decisions to make every day. All of them seem to fit the goofy opinions of these so called professional politicians (Arlen Specter and Patrick Leahy to name two of them), and they seem to fit within the boundaries of their definitions of what they would like to see in the next appointed justice.

You know who they are right? Arlen Specter just changed parties from Republican to Democrat in order to be reelected and ride the Obama-Gravy train. Patrick Leahy is the liberal Democratic senator whose hobby is to be a fan of all things Batman. He was a bit player in the last Batman movie.

The two guys want a Supreme Court justice who has "done something other than wear a black robe for most of their lives." I don't necessarily disagree with that statement as their is plenty of precedence for this, in the nineteenth century and in common law from as early as 100 BC!!

Here is my question and is why I am concerned. With all that is happening in the world and in our country, do we really want to be guided in our collective Supreme Court judgments by people who have no real world experience at judging? I am not qualified to say definitively Yes or No , however it seems to me that if you have car repair to be done (and you cannot do it yourself), you call a mechanic. When you want to build a house do you call a plumber?

Lets see ...hmmmm. abortion case? Call the Gardner and have him decide. Immigration case? I know a fisherman in Alaska with an opinion. We have to decide the case on an enemy combatant, better call the DJ from the nightclub my kids go to.

These politicians would have you believe that a Supreme Court Justice doesn't need to be a judge. Or have experience as a judge. Or have a background similar to a judge.

And we are supposed to think politicians somehow understand what we need as a country. In the next breath they intimate that Hillary Clinton would be a great appointment. I am flummoxed. What planet are these guys from?

Right. OK.

Heck why not? We got the guy from the mailroom elected as the CEO didn't we?

The story gets goofier and goofier every day.

Thankx for reading my rant !

bigmike

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

The economy and the shape it is in

I sent the following letter to my local newspaper yesterday to their OP-Ed editor. I know they won't print it because it is too wordy, much too opinionated, too involved and is controversial and isn't a 5 second sound bite, however I really don't care if they print it or not. Bluntly, I know most of my mailing list probably won't read this either, because it is actually a 3 page letter rather than a brief opinion and who has time for that? That's OK with me too.

 

I just wanted to say my piece and have it known that the talking heads and Katie Couric and Wolf Blitzer and CNN and all the rest of them are just flat wrong and they don't speak for me when they report most everything related to this mess. Hell you could say it is somewhat their fault for ignoring all the warning signs in the first place. It is the in-thing right now to report exclusively about what steps the government is supposedly taking to solve the crisis they let happen in the first place, yet nary a word is ever spoken about what "the little guy", the average income earner really cares about and what really caused this mess to begin with. Which one of the big three Financial news networks predicted this? (Hint - The answer is 0, none.) When is the last time you saw any one of them interview with some poor schmuck who got fired , lost his house, went into bankruptcy and has basically lost everything? The next question is when is the last time you saw a politician talking about how this crap really affects real people with kids, mortgages, car payments and kids in college?

 

Beats the hell out of me how the disconnect got so big between what is actually happening and what we are told is occurring.

 

-Bigmike 

Dear Sirs:

Somehow, I just don't get it. I must be a very stupid person. Current reporting makes it seem as if this economic mess we are is very complicated and is somehow difficult to explain, and in my view it is pretty easy to understand why we are in the shape we are in. In my view, the explanation is simple to define and how we got here is even easier to know. Yet even if you know why we are here it has little to nothing to do with resolving the problems. The issue is not how to fix the mess, it is however all about how to reorganize our priorities, to put reality in our expectations and how we as a nation should define going forward what is good for America in the first place. This mess however makes the Enron meltdown look like a kids T-ball game, just to put it in perspective.

Ask yourself a couple of basic questions.

How is it that a corporation can make millions of dollars per year and pay millions more in bonuses and then is justified in laying off thousands of people in their company in order to bump up the share price for the shareholders, even when the company just had a year of record sales and profits and the CEO personally made more money than he's ever made? Don’t the shareholders realize that at some point they could grow their own share price by investing directly in their own companies and make more profit by having a nimble, trained and staffed company, with a CEO that has their eye on the future and not on his own bankbook? At least they would realize it if it wasn’t the same 2000 people on every corporate board in every major company in America who are all seemingly more worried more about their own personal fortunes than anything else. There is no glass ceiling anymore, its an a** ceiling. Sarbanes Oxley is a joke and did not help at all and never will. It is still the same good old boys network running everything, and they still have all ten fingers in the till. In the same train of thought, Why is it that the media will report that a company laid off thousands of people, or closed a plant or sold a whole division and on that news alone the share of stock in that company gets a price bump? It is then spun, managed and reported to us that news just like this is somehow a positive outlook, that somehow this is a good thing? Bad news equals higher profits?

It seems to me that this kind of "bad news", defined as less capacity and less employees to do more work in less time at a reduced cost ("read move our operation to a cheaper foreign country"), should key the directors and the shareholders and even the general public that they have the wrong upper management in the first place. It seems to me that they ought to hold the CEO responsible for the problem and not the hourly staff. The CEO can hang on however for 10 years or more of poor results and can decimate a company’s capacity and then they have a contract that has to be bought out to get rid of him that eventually will cost that company millions and millions of dollars in order to change him out?

What about the common worker? What about Us? It’s a greased banana and don’t let the door hit you in the butt on the way out. You have just been "right sized", or Outplaced, or were part of an RIF campaign, or were Efficiency placed. Your butt was just fired. C-YA wouldn't wanna be ya. Sucks to be you.

I know people who have 750-800 credit scores who run successful businesses, and the banks will not loan money to them right now for any reason. Why? Because they are afraid to, because they view it as their duty to protect the bank (read "protect their income" as corporate executives are almost always large shareholders of the institutions they manage and they benefit from higher share prices before anyone else does), and not their duty to protect their depositors, their communities or the people in it. Thank the FED and Ben Bernanke for that. Thankx a lot Mr. Greenspan. I appreciate it Warren. Way to go Mr. Gates. Keep pumping up the banks; somebody has to protect the billionaire’s money I guess. Irrational exuberance my fat hairy butt!

Are these people that stupid?

Or are we?

Was the current money crisis was caused by credit swaps or sub prime loans? By subordinated debentures? By packaged mortgage securities? My opinion is that anyone who thinks so is wrong! (and generally mistaken) and here is why I think so.

This crisis started because we are allowing our companies to not pay taxes due to tax loopholes big enough to launch the space shuttle through. It is because we are allowing our employers to grow their own bank accounts by merging with each other and then firing thousands of workers at once to manage their share price. Its because we allow analysts to predict what a company's earnings "should be" and then a company is expected to react to that news. It was caused because a company is allowed to have "Earnings Guidance calls" with reporters and analysts. Fannie mae and Freddie mac failed because the price of food went up, because ethanol increased the price of everything that is made with corn, oil and plastic by huge numbers. They failed because we sat idly by and watched our auto makers pay workers almost 100$ per hour (averaged including retirement benefits based on the average price of a car) and then we wonder and fret about why they lost money and cannot sell cars. They failed because the price of a gallon of gasoline doubled in 8-12 months and a fill up was 2-4 times as expensive at the end of the year as it was on the first day of the year. They failed because electricity, natural gas, jet fuel, diesel fuel and heating oil rose to levels never seen before while we did nothing but wring our hands, if we reacted at all. It failed because it was and is legal to raise the interest rate on your credit card to absurd rates and on your home loan to more than a 40% higher payment per month in less than one year. It failed because we allowed insurance companies to price their policies based on your credit score. This current crisis wasn't caused by a bank, it was caused by classic greed, and its name is Wall street greed and we stood idly by and let them do it.

The rules were made up by people lining their own pockets with our money. What sense does a 25 point different in a complicated credit score mean when it is based on obscure reasoning and then please consider and explain to me how it really does lead to fairly being charged thousands more dollars to buy a house or a car than your next door neighbor? You wonder why nobody is buying houses or cars right now? You wonder why credit card companies and banks are going under? Simple, the people they gave credit to, have lost their jobs. They are in foreclosure, their cars have been repossessed, their bank accounts are empty and most are contemplating some form of bankruptcy, suicide, divorce or all three.

And now to the rescue, our politicians are going to help us? Please explain how and when. By giving me a tax break that amounts to about $20 a week more on my paycheck? Gee thankx, thankx a lot. It was my money to begin with and it took you 15 months to give it back to me after I earned it? That will help a lot. I couldn't be more grateful. Does anyone else see how stupid this is? Global warming is something I should be worried about? Yeah right, I'll worry about this one after I burn all the couches and chairs and dinner tables to keep warm maybe. You think I am worrying mostly about how much my 401k declined? Not my biggest worry right now, I can assure you. I could care less what the price of a share of Ford, GM or Chrysler is right now as long as I can afford a gallon of gas to get to work, I'm good thanks. Heck, I care more about what a loaf of bread or a gallon of milk costs right now than an automakers share price. Hundreds of Thousands or more people have lost their jobs since January 2007 and many of them have now had to take work at less than one-half the salary they used to make or they still do not have jobs. You wonder why banks failed? Not me, I wonder how I'm going to eat and how I'm going to afford to get to work as I have to drive 3 times as far , to make half as much, on gas that is twice as expensive. You want me to feel concerned for a bank or an auto maker? Be real. You think I really care about a corporate bailout? Explain to me how a corporate bailout really helps me or my family or my community and I'll care. Until then, don't speak for me as I really couldn't care less. If my house can be foreclosed upon, all of them can fail for all I care. If my kids are starving, Chrysler can go belly up tomorrow as I can't buy their product anymore, anyhow.

The numbers these analyst idiots and our politicians ought to be focused on is the jobless number. Fix the jobless problem and you have just fixed everything else. If I have a job, I'll pay my mortgage, my credit cards, my bank loans etc and I might buy a car sometime in the near future. In the last 15 years I have bought 5 new cars. In the last three I have bought no cars at all, new or used. You do not have to "fix" anything else. Just quit screwing with my job! Stop rewarding CEO's who think they have to trim expenses by firing thousands of workers to make analysts happy so their share price doesn't drop, so they can reap the reward of a multi million dollar bonus! Stop rewarding the so-called banking titans that caused this mess in the first place with their endless buffet line of increased fees, fluffed up charges and "financial products" that no one (not even a lawyer) can understand. Just what is a future derivative anyway? A banker used to be an upper middle income job. How did it suddenly become a job that is worth millions of dollars a year plus bonus? I'd love to ask the average middle income earner how many credit card offers they got in the mail last year and know how in the heck did it become OK to charge me $2.00 to get a miniature statement from my own banks ATM machine?

In companies like the ones I just alluded to, the CEO’s of those firms have one common personality type. They think, for some strange reason that laying off thousands of people, constantly firing and constant criticism will shake up the place and make people more productive. What really happens when you constantly shake up the place is that the staff starts looking for a way to protect their job and then keeps their head down to try and stay out of the line of fire, with the end result that really very little effort is going towards getting any productive work done in the first place. For some years now corporate America has been chasing a share price at the expense of everything else. In the last 30 years, we have almost wiped totally out our ability to manufacture everything from tube socks to washing machines in our quest for the holy grail of lower costs and higher share prices.

Large retailers like Wal-Mart have contributed greatly to this idiocy for a long time and I’ve yet to hear anybody ask the one that is pretty obvious to ask. How are we going to be able to buy anything in this new "World Economy" , if we don’t have anywhere to work that pays a decent wage and if there are no companies or jobs left to be loyal to? What in fact are we supposed to be loyal to? A Brand? I can hear it now, "Yes maam, I’d like one TIDE t-shirt and two pairs of Viagra socks please". We will not be able soon to buy anything made in China because we won’t have any money to buy it with. Who are all these poor so called third world nations going to sell to if they can’t sell it to us?

To all the talking heads - Just stop the stupidity and please just stop yapping incessantly about the big picture. I can't even afford the gasoline to mow my lawn and you think we care about GM? Or Freddie Mae? It makes no sense. I never want to hear the words "Economic Stimulus package" again, as it is all smoke and mirrors and generally no one but a select few will ever be helped by it. My 90 pound dog makes a lot of "shovel ready" projects too, OK? My county got enough money to fix one two lane country road bridge in the backwater area of my county. Four workers might benefit from it. There is 13 % unemployment here, but one bridge in the middle of nowhere is the priority. Does this sound like stimulus to you?

Me? I must be stupid as I just don’t get it and Dilbert makes more and more sense every day.

It makes very little practical sense to fire the older workers because of higher wages, and then just hire more younger workers because of lower wages, because to do so makes the purchasing power of the money they are paid (the younger worker) worth less. Your earning power is less and because of that everything else then costs more in order for a company to hit the magical "compared to last year numbers" and your dollar doesn’t go anywhere as far as it used to.

See the thing is, we are in the middle of a fallacy that is a kids fractured story tale made up of a downward spiral and everything we are doing right now is managing that spiral downwards. We are doing nothing more than managing the decline, because less jobs = less money. Less money = less purchasing. Less purchasing = negative economic trend and means much lower tax revenues and lower tax revenues means reduced social services and slashed municipal budgets and guess who gets downsized? Firemen, Cops, teachers, sanitation workers and the like. Yeah that bridge will fix everything.

This is exactly where we are right now and it is not that hard to figure out.

The next crisis is called inflation and is what is coming next. If I can figure it out , anybody can.

Here is a word of advice. Even if you have to eat crap with a serving spoon at work right now, keep your job no matter what you do. You lose your job today and you are screwed. Another one at the same money is highly improbable. You better stay focused on keeping that paycheck coming right on in, if you have any sense at all. Can't pay your mortgage? I hear Sears has big cardboard boxes, because no one and I mean no one running any of the Fortune 1000 cares if you are homeless as long as their share price is not too badly damaged.

 

Thankx for reading my rant ! 

 

bigmike

 

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/  

 

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

 

I sent this letter to Wal-Mart the other day....

I hate complaining, I really do, BUT... these clowns really make me annoyed.

Surprisingly enough , no response.

Go figure.

 

 

Dear Wal-Mart,

 

Stop being so customer unfriendly and get in your stores to see what the affect the polices you put into practice has on your customers, not to mention your employees.

 

Here are five good ones. I could not believe this, all in one night, again. I hate to gripe, however I can't believe you want it to be this way. If you don't, do something about it.

 

1. Cigarettes are only available in one line. OK. I get that. Then you made that line 15 items or less. Smooth moronic stupid move. Now if you want groceries and intend to buy cigarettes, you have to stand in your long, slow lines twice.  If you don't really want to sell cigarettes, get out of the business. If you do want to sell them, dedicate one line for that item only (or drinks, gum, or end caps stuff whatever or a kiosk). However, to purposefully piss people off, and then blame it on the government is insane and a chickens*** way to do business.

 

2. This is a supercenter. Act like it. You have what? 25 check out lanes? I've never seen more than 6-7 open. Ridiculous long lines always. Frustrated cashiers. Pissed off customers (including me). Put some of those folks who are walking around doing nothing to work helping customers get out of your stores. Open check out lanes on demand. Be flexible and customer friendly. Trust me, in this location, you are not. When every line snakes out into the aisles, open more registers. Cross train everybody to be service oriented. You need help here. They don't get it.

 

3. A box of discounted DVD's and Cheap DVD's is a good idea. Putting it into a 5 foot wide by 5-foot deep box is stupid. No one less than 5 foot five can get into it. How can you sell them if you can't reach them? How can we see what is in the bottom? How many do you think you didn't sell, CAUSE YOU CAN"T GET TO THEM? Geez!!

 

4. Have you ever heard of pagers? They were invented 25 years ago. Or walkie talkies? Or cell phones? Do away with the extremely loud and very annoying overhead microphone system! It is not `cache to not be able to hold a conversation with someone right next to you because the loud ass speakers over your head go off every two minutes. It really makes me see RED!

 

5. No cashier ever gets all the security tags turned off. I don't even bother stopping at the front door anymore when your official mechanical voice tells me to. Screw it. Train your people, get better technology, fix the problem, whatever it takes, cause I'll make you chase me to my car every time until you do.

 

 

 

 

 

Thankx for reading my rant ! 

 

bigmike

 

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/  

 

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

 

Rapping Flight Attendant

http://chickencrap.com/v.php?v=493

Check this out.

It is hilarious.

Thankx for reading my rant !

Bigmike

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if
you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

No virus found in this outgoing message.
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18:51:00

The Pirate Bay Trial

 

See this link :

 

http://government.zdnet.com/?p=4368

 

and search google for Pirate bay Trial if you don't know the subject.

 

First, before all the PB supporters start with the shut - ups, just admit it . You and I know that file sharing is not generally viewed as a legal activity. Just because you may not agree with the law or the facts doesn't mean you can change them or ignore them because you don't like them. True, there are many legal activities associated with file sharing in its various permutations , however I think any reasonable person would conclude that downloading a full length movie (for example) for free is probably not legal in any sense. I think anyone who uses any of the popular P2P clients  (like Lime wire for example) already know that and just decide to take their chances with the legality.

 

The question however is one strictly related to legal culpability. The question is really better framed as criminal facilitation of the illegal act. In a legal sense the Prosecution is asking, Is TPB legally culpable for the act of pointing someone towards the actual destination without ever hosting the actual content? This is where the case is pretty tricky, legally. Arguments are going to be made on both sides that point to intent and profitability. They are being called a continuing criminal enterprise because they had the intent of breaking the law and intended to profit from their actions. Logistically, this is the prosecutions case to prove.

 

So is it legal to be the facilitator?

 

What if I went to the mother ship of all search engines , the mighty Google.com, and searched for filetype:bittorrent? If I found any torrent files due to a google search , is Google then liable for the conduct of the searcher, who actually commits the illegal act of downloading the file?

 

As of this morning I got 605,000 google results using this simple query. If I accessed any of the results with the intent of using a torrent client to download the content , and in the act of downloading I was caught by the authorities, could Google be charged as my co-conspirator?

 

What is I used Google to find illegal drugs? Or Kiddie Porn? What if I used them to buy illegal weapons and then went on a killing spree? Did they criminally facilitate the killing? This is where the case gets absurd.

 

TPB is only criminally liable if you also believe that information you can get from a standard library, used criminally, is the responsibility of the library to regulate its use.

 

See here is the rub, they are using a shaky poorly framed argument and have no end game strategy which sets TPB apart from every other operation who provides search results . If the Pirate Bay is guilty then so is every other search engine who does not specialize in this one type of file.

 

Every search engine that provides results to file searches , and then allows the user to click link to the material has committed the same offense that TPB is accused of in a legal sense. They facilitated finding the material, they intended to profit from the search by accepting Advertising money using a structured corporate decision making model and they knew that the links could lead to illegal activity.

 

Is this enough to convict TPB ? It shouldn’t be.

 

There is no search for truth or justice here.

 

The prosecutor says this is about money. The defendants apparently don’t have any large sums of money.

 

The stupid companies signed on to this think it is about precedent. They are going to deter this type of behavior by prosecuting TPB.

 

How stupid is this?

 

The only thing this will accomplish even if they win and TPB is convicted is to give current and future operators of torrent sites a road map of how to evade prosecution.  They will never collect a dime of any judgment even if they win.

 

Thankx for reading my rant ! 

 

bigmike

 

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/  

 

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

Enough of this, Enough is enough is enough !

This is an open letter to any and all of our elected representatives in Washington D.C. (and here at home too if it applies).

 

I've listened to President Obama and every other politician from both sides of the aisle tell us countless things since before the election that kind of boils down to these three key points :

• That we (the people) have to sacrifice in this fiscal emergency, in order to fix this mess.
• That we (the politicians) have to do things differently in order to get things done, in order to fix this mess.
• That we (everyone) must approach things in a way that never has been done before in order to see real change, in order to fix this mess.

I am wondering that if all of those statements (or any of them) are true and plausible , then why is it that the answers to the problems no matter what they may be are always the same tired old thing? The same old tried and true political doublespeak comes from both parties. The same tired rhetoric from every one on Capitol Hill. The exact same answers that Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan used are being re-hashed and given a different name, but they are doing the same things. Everybody is busy diving for cover and blaming each other, with both sides saying the other is wrong. One or two old timers in both parties are telling everybody who will listen within earshot that the other side has it all wrong.

 

I say Enough. Enough is Enough is Enough. Baloney, Fooie and spit is what I say. 9 days into the Presidency that was supposed to change the world and the best we can do is to posture, change executive orders that we don't like and gripe because we are in the minority? He may be left handed but it sure seems like most everything else is just about where we left off in December. You want to help me? Fix Jobs now. You want to help me? Buy back 30 % of every mortgage that is overvalued and out of reach. Let millions of people keep their homes. Tell the banks you'll give them 20 cents on the dollar for every mortgage they modify down from the rip me off pricing and then give them my so called tax break. New growth industry overnight. Lawyers would go nuts over this one. You want to help me? Give the bankruptcy judge the power to modify an existing mortgage to a fair one in this economy that makes sense to the average American. If you want to give out tax breaks, don't try to give it at tax time to a family of four barely surviving on 50,000 dollars a year in a double income household. This may help the balance sheets of the treasury, but come payday it don't mean squat to me or to anyone else. You can call it billions of dollars in tax breaks if you want to , but the fact is an extra $2.62 every week don't excite me a bit. Factually you are giving me my own money back and it took you 15 months to do it after I earned it. How's that going to help me? 

 

Will one of you people please tell the truth for once? Can any one of you please do the job you were elected to do and stop looking for one minute at the next election? You were not elected to be right or to beat the other party. You were not elected to begin re-inventing your party so you don't lose next time. You were not elected so you could find cover from tough issues come election time, so you can deny you are part of the problem. You are not there to put off making decisions about today's problems until you are re-elected. You are not there to be a chairman of a committee. You are not there to be powerful. You are not there to go on trips abroad. You are not there to run special elections and run special investigations. You did not get elected to be able to charge thousands of dollars in 5 years giving speeches to half drunk nitwits at a convention and enrich yourself.

 

You are there to serve me and everybody like me. You are there to fix what is broken, not to ensure your continued re-election, cycle after cycle. You are there to make a difference and to make sure America is prosperous and survives with all our freedoms intact for the next 200 years. If that's not why you are there, then you need to go away and go away quick, back to your law practice.

 

You want to radically change the life of the average American you talk so loftily about? You want to make life easier and better in this country? Good, so do I. Here is a radical thought. If you want to give me a tax break, Get out of my paycheck. You guys have taxed and taxed and taxed and came up with new ways to collect taxes so many inventive ways that you are literally taxed from birth to death and beyond and it never stops, and new taxes are applied every day. The latest iteration of this goofy philosophy is that you want to give a tax break to only those people who can prove they have a right to work here because they have a social security number? Tax breaks are a stupid idea whose time is well past because you have to have enormous sums of money in the first place in order to see any benefit from them at tax time. They do absolutely no good. They may sound pretty in speeches but it has never been proven that a tax break helps the average American in any substantial way, once he has spent his tax check.

 

Here is a better idea. Make everybody pay taxes fairly and make certain that every income earned no matter how it was made, is subject to taxation. Make gang bangers who sell drugs pay taxes. Make illegal aliens pay taxes. Make people who get paid cash pay taxes. Tax our 40-45 % of all Americans who never pay a dime of income tax, yet somehow get a tax refund check anyway. Make criminals pay taxes. Tax the Mafia, the Russian gangsters and the Yakuza all at once. Make them pay their fair share. Tax every hooker, pimp, burglar, drug buyer and seller and every one who buys pervert pornography, and make them feel my pain. The way it is right now, virtually none of the examples I've cited pay income taxes, yet they can live lavish lifestyles and then guess who supports them, by paying their share of taxes and then paying for their incarcerations?

 

The average American everybody talks about, that's who, and I for one am sick of it.

 

The problem as I see it, is that fundamentally the tax and tax break equation is all wrong. It is backwards. Instead of applying a tax rate to income, then allowing exclusions and loopholes and tax breaks and enterprise zones to eat the heart out the tax rate and then thinking of complicated and insane ways to give me a tax break, just get to work and adopt a strategy that taxes spending instead of income.

 

If you tax spending, I decide what I spend my money on and you always get your cut from everybody. No one can escape paying taxes with this strategy. Criminals, Gangbangers and drug dealers and illegal aliens have to eat don't they ? Good, when they buy food or eat a lavish dinner collect a tax on that. When a rich guy has a big pool built, tax it. When a supermodel has plastic surgery , that's right, tax it. Even if I am here illegally and don't have a single piece of legal ID at all, I still buy groceries and electricity and gasoline and alcohol and toilet paper don't I? Tax the tax if you want to, but do it so that everyone is treated equally under the law and I am not tax discriminated against because I choose to be law abiding and pay my taxes owed. Tax every good and every service without exception at an equitable rate no matter what it is and we can stop having this idiotic argument about who is right, because our problem is not that I need a tax break, our problem is that not all of us pay taxes.

 

See the two issues at play here are really pretty simple. It goes like this.

 

First, income taxes were invented. No one person , not one law firm, CPA or accountant, and no single agency understands the entire tax code. Lawyers and legislators have made it so unwieldy and cumbersome that it no longer works. There are so many exceptions to the code that people make a great high dollar income out of small sections of it by helping other folks to not pay taxes. It is broken. Accept this and move forward.

 

Second, as soon as everybody figured out that taxation was going to based on the theory of tax collection on income, the underground economy took off, and by some accounts it is actually bigger than the reported economy, depending upon who you believe. Everyone who works for cash figured this out a long, long time ago. Ask any waitress or waiter. You think they declare all their tips, just so you can take it from them ? This process allows and encourages people to lie in order to save money, and only punishes those too ignorant to hide their income.

 

Its not that hard to say out loud and If I can figure it out, all those Ivy league lawyers in Washington DC ought to be able to do it too.

 

I doubt there is any political will to even think about this. They are all too worried about being re-elected next time.

 

President Obama, Yeah, we can, but sadly, No we won't.

 

 

Thankx for reading my rant ! 

 

bigmike

 

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/  

 

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

I found an Alternative to eBay

Hey everybody, I just wanted to let you all know I found an alternative to the outrageous fee increase that went on in ebay last spring/summer.

Because their fees went up so much and because they changed the whole dern place I had stopped listing there, and had to find a new strategy.

The new place is called Bonanzle.

You can find it at : http://www.bonanzle.com/

Here is the lowdown.

and my bonanzle store : http://www.bonanzle.com/booths/22570

I still have items listed at half.com (yeah I know , its part of ebay) but mostly because in that format things sell.

Here is my half.com store.

http://shops.half.ebay.com/answrtek

Currently I have 130 movies and 67 books in every category imaginable available for sale.

Thankx for reading my rant !

-bigmike

Windows 7 - Some funny stuff

Windows 7 - Now coming to a store near you. (Also known as Super Vista, the Fixta for Vista, The Vista that shoulda been and Mac Wannabe-ista).

This guy that draws these cartoons is frickin hilarious.

Check out his web site at http://xkcd.com

Thankx for reading my rant !

bigmike

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

THIS ONE PACKS A FIRM PUNCH

A friend of mine sent me this and I concur. Read on.

 

This was written by a Canadian woman, but oh how it also applies to the U.S., U.K. and Australia


THIS ONE PACKS A FIRM PUNCH

Here is a woman who should run for Prime Minister! Written by a housewife in New Brunswick, to her local newspaper. This
is one ticked off lady.

'Are we fighting a war on terror or aren't we? Was it or was it not started by Islamic people who brought it to our shores on September 11, 2001
and have continually threatened to do so since?

Were people from all over the world, not brutally murdered that day, in downtown Manhattan, across the Potomac from the nation's capitol and in
a field in Pennsylvania?

Did nearly three thousand men, women and children die a horrible, burning or crushing death that day, or didn't they?

And I'm supposed to care that a few Taliban were claiming to be tortured by a justice system of the nation they come from and are fighting
against in a brutal insurgency

I'll start caring when Osama bin Laden turns himself in and repents for incinerating all those innocent people on 9/11.

I'll care about the Koran when the fanatics in the Middle East start caring about the Holy Bible, the mere belief of which is a crime punishable
by beheading in Afghanistan.

I'll care when these thugs tell the world they are sorry for hacking off Nick Berg's head while Berg screamed through his gurgling slashed
throat.

I'll care when the cowardly so-called 'insurgents' in Afghanistan come out and fight like men instead of disrespecting their own religion by
hiding in mosques.

I'll care when the mindless zealots who blow themselves up in search of nirvana care about the innocent children within range of their suicide
bombs.

I'll care when the Canadian media stops pretending that their freedom of speech on stories is more important than the lives of the soldiers on
the ground or their families waiting at home to hear about them when something happens.

In the meantime, when I hear a story about a CANADIAN soldier roughing up an Insurgent terrorist to obtain information, know this:

I don't care.

When I see a wounded terrorist get shot in the head when he is told not to move because he might be booby-trapped, you can take it to the bank:

I don't care.

When I hear that a prisoner, who was issued a Koran and a prayer mat, and 'fed special' food that is paid for by my tax dollars, is complaining
that his holy book is being 'mishandled,' you can absolutely believe in your heart of hearts:

I don't care.

And oh, by the way, I've noticed that sometimes it's spelled 'Koran' and other times 'Quran.' Well, Jimmy Crack Corn you guessed it,

I don't care!!

If you agree with this viewpoint, pass this on to all your E-mail friends Sooner or later, it'll get to the people responsible for this
ridiculous behavior! If you don't agree, then by all means hit the delete button. Should you choose the latter, then please don't complain when more atrocities committed by radical Muslims happen here in our great Country!

And may I add:

Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the Soldiers don't have that problem.

I have another quote that I would like to add, AND.......I hope you forward all this.

One last thought for the day:


Only five defining forces have ever offered to die for you:

1. Jesus Christ

2. The Canadian Soldier.

3. The British Soldier.

4. The US Soldier, and

5. The Australian Soldier

One died for your soul, the other 4 for your freedom.


YOU MIGHT WANT TO PASS THIS ON, AS MANY SEEM TO FORGET ALL OF THEM.

AMEN!

 

 

 

Thankx for reading my rant ! 

(and thank you to the Canadian Woman who wrote this)

 

bigmike

 

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/  

 

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

 

Re: Hate Vista? You May Like the Fix (Your Article)

Sent: Saturday, January 24, 2009 11:39 AM
To: 'pogue@nytimes.com'
Subject: Re: Hate Vista? You May Like the Fix (Your Article)
 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/technology/personaltech/22pogue.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&em 

 

By DAVID POGUE

Published: January 21, 2009  

 

Dear Mr. Pogue,

 

I read your article with some interest and with an eye on discerning if Windows 7 may be worth my time or patience or money. I found the article well written and a good mix of Pro's and Con's concerning the software. Your article in nytimes.com, hits all the "Why we disliked Vista themes", squarely on the head, yet misses one very important consideration (maybe two if you include enterprise sales). I'm not a Microsoft hater and have seriously considered Vista, yet can't see how this makes sense to me or to the average home user. Everything I have is running on a Windows platform , mostly all with Microsoft software.

 

Here is the big question I've seen nobody address and really have seen no one attempt to answer.

 

Who is this version of Windows targeted to sell to? In other words , what compelling reason exists to make me or any consumer (who is more than the average home user) run out and buy this new Operating system? I'm confused as to why I should even consider it as a replacement for any of my machines. Lets see. (without major investments in all the devices on my network)....

 

If I buy Windows 7 (What - Super Vista?), I will have the same issues with drivers, accessories, updates and peripherals that I would have with the current Vista offering. My computer exceeds the average system requirements (3.06 GHz process or, 3 Gb Ram etc), but none of my printer drivers are compatible, none of my usb devices have Vista drivers, my digital camera isn't compatible and has no Vista drivers, my video card is not Vista capable (Dual VGA output, dual screen), my customized Windows style keyboard does not have updated drivers, and my 5.1 surround sound system card from Creative Labs does not have Vista drivers. They all work flawlessly with Windows XP Professional though. That is on one of my 6 computers. Neither of my laptops is rugged enough to run it, my web server can't run it, my wife's desktop won't run it, my wireless Home music device isn't compatible, virtually none of the other devices attached to my home network can be recognized by Vista (or by Super Vista - Windows 7). My web server run Windows 2000 Professional and has absolutely no issues to deal with except to run it.

 

In order to be able to just install and run this one OS on any one of my systems the TCO (Total cost of Ownership) would be staggering. This is just to make the OS run and I haven't even considered the impact on the software on any of my systems. Imagine how a CTO of a medium sized company would answer the question from the CEO... "What would the TCO be to update our company to Windows7". Confusing pricing strategies don't even make it to the top of the list, once you start to investigate all the other issues. So to be clear and if I understand the issues clearly and correctly, it isn't targeted at the Power user, can't be seriously considered right now for Enterprise volume licenses, isn't really an upgrade product for older (2003 and prior) machines, is a break from how Windows operates with XP and prior versions, and has serious implications for millions of pieces of software that run flawlessly on WindowsXp and prior versions, then pray tell who is this OS going to be sold to? Someone who has one computer, who just checks email and surfs the internet? As the OS replacement for a new computer purchase ? As the OS of choice for college students to play music and games? To a brand new computer user who won't have to re-learn how to use a computer? Of all computer users, how can they seriously think this will attract mass-consumption?

 

I don't have any need for self-flagellation, so it must not be targeted at me. I would have to win the mega million dollar lottery and then hire a software consultant, a personal geek to fix everything it breaks and then literally spend thousands of dollars to be able to even think about doing this. This is the part I don't get. You think the public was disappointed with Vista? Wait until they get a load of Super Vista (Windows7). This strategy is about as honest and compelling as the soap maker who touts "New and Improved" to sell their product and then it turns out that the only "New" is the box design and the "Improved" is that the Box size is smaller with less in it , yet the product costs more. This is more of the same and less reasons to switch than was reported with Vista.

 

To date, no one has seriously reported this (the TCO nightmare). You should consider what it will cost the average consumer to run it , on a TCO basis and then report that. I think you would be amazed at what the real dollars spent would add up to. This is pretty much the same discussion on why we aren't buying Office 2007 or upgrading at the same rate with any of their development programs (.Net etc), it is why Windows Server products sales are sluggish, and why none of the Fortune 500 (a small number did and most switched back to XP) upgraded to Vista in the first place. Its also why you can buy a laptop right now for around $500 and why they'll give you Vista Premium basically for free. It may be great but who can afford it? If I can't afford it , then it doesn't matter how wonderful it is and I could care less that it looks , acts and feels like a Mac. I'm not a Mac hater either , but I run 100 % Microsoft products, so how does making it work like a Mac make me want to buy it?

 

It used to be that I and people like me were the target audience. Doesn't seem that way any more.

 

Thankx for reading my rant ! 

 

bigmike

 

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/  

 

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

How can I help you?

 

How can I help you? You ever hear these words in a restaurant or C-Store? You walk up to the counter or you sit down in the restaurant or call someplace and the first thing they say to you is "....How can I help you?" Then, in the flash of an eye, you get put on hold or interrupted or told "I don't handle that". Next !

Wait a minute, did you want to help me or not? I haven't even finished explaining to you what it is I want yet and already you are yelling next ! Give a me the common courtesy of you undivided attention and try to figure out how to help me solve my friggin problem !

Why do people say things like this anyhow? It means no more than the usual "How are you?" greeting that you get from most folks when you first see them. If you answer this phrase as it is asked, they look at you like you just ran over their foot with their car. They don't really want to know, they just want to hear you say fine. Irks me to no end. You don't want to know , don't ask.

Here's another one. There are about 300 million people in the USA (estimate). Most of those people are born here, educated here, work here, vacation here, retire here and die here. Almost all of them speak English (in varying degrees). Yet, when you call some place, the automated menu says "To continue in English, press one". Like I need to know what language to speak in , in my own country?

I am not insensitive to non-English speakers. Whenever I can I try to learn conversational phrases in the language of the area in order to be able to communicate in the language of the people around me, or I take somebody who can translate for me. Why on gods earth then do I need the phone company to ask me if I want to continue in English?

Assume I want English, I live in America, ask If I want to communicate in another language. "To continue in Espanola, press dos". Seems pretty ignorant to ask the high 99 % majority of the people who call if they want to communicate in the predominate language in the country you are in. If I was in Japan, I wouldn't expect for the voice prompt to say, to continue in Japanese, press one, I would expect the message to be in Japanese, because I am in JAPAN !!! - duh!

You ask me , we have went too far to the left in our cultural sensitivity.

Oh I'm sorry, you don't speak English or you are deaf, don't worry, I'll talk louder !

Here is another stupid decision, where we are busy trying to be all things to all people and never to risk offending anyone with our products, goods or services.

I'll bet almost everyone in America has used a drive thru ATM. Most people have used them more than the inside of the bank. I am sure there is a segment in America who has never used anything but an ATM. The access to the keypad is designed so that you can use it from your car. The drivers side of the car is usually the side you transact your business from.

If all of that is true, then why pray tell are there Braille indicators on the keypads at a drive thru ATM? Who is ever going to use that particular function anyhow? Is this designed for the legally blind yet totally functional driver who will occasionally need to go to the ATM late one night who does not want to get out of the car because the seeing eye dog is afraid of the dark?

What the heck is this all about anyhow?

How did we become such a society of idiots anyhow?

 

Thankx for reading my rant ! 

 

bigmike

 

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/  

 

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

 

Not Everybody gets to be a CEO.

Not Everybody gets to be a CEO.

Simple things that are just stupid

I saw this sign above the doorway of a Flying J travel plaza.

The question it brings to mind is almost too simple to ask.

Who in their right mind thinks the cashier at a truck stop, knows more about Homeland Security threat levels than the average person does?

To me , this is just another one of those idiosynchratic messages we see all the time that nobody pays attention to, except maybe lawyers.

The message on matches that says " Warning, when struck against the attached rough surface, may cause flame", is about the same , maybe the same category at least. The message on peanuts that says "May contain nuts", (no kidding saw that one at a McDonalds, in happy meal stuff.

What exactly is the message here?

Just what is it they are trying to say?

Maybe the message is "Oxymorons unite !

FYI : An Oxymoron is a combination of contradictory or incongruous words, such as 'Cruel Kindness' or 'Jumbo Shrimp' (Jumbo means 'large' while Shrimp means 'small'). It is a literary figure of speech in which opposite or contradictory words, terms, phrases or ideas are combined to create a rhetorical effect by paradoxical means.

Try this : http://www.oxymoronix.com/

Some of my favorites are:

1. Military Intelligence


2. Unbiased Opinion


3. Microsoft Works


4. Exact Estimate


5. Virtual reality

Seems to me they over thought this.

They should have just put it on a T-Shirt (or a sign).

Thanks for reading my Rant !

-bigmike
http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/

Life is really just 2 questions

Life is really just 2 questions...





Should I get a dog.....?

OR



Should I have children?

Thankx for reading my rant !

bigmike

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

This guy is a hoot. Visit His website !!

Fricking Hilarious !!!

-BigMike

You Tube downloader -Free

You ever wish you could download YouTube videos? I do it all the time for free !

You can too. Go here - http://www.download3000.com/

Its pretty cool and fairly easy to use. NO Nagware, Adware, Malware or Spyware.



You know me, I don't recomend anything that doesn't work.

Thankx for reading,

BigMike


http://www.bigmikerant.blogspot.com/

Thought For the day !!!

Just my thought for the day !!!

BigMike

Here is some real stupidity

Student arrested for 'passing gas' at Fla. school
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1120ap_odd_flatulence_arrest.html?source=mypi
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
STUART, Fla. -- A student at a Florida school has been arrested after authorities said he was "passing gas" and turning off his classmates' computers. According to a report released Friday by the Martin County Sheriff's Office, the 13-year-old boy "continually disrupted his classroom environment" by intentionally breaking wind. He then shut off some computers other students were using.
The Spectrum Junior-Senior High School was arrested Nov. 4.
A school resource officer placed the boy under arrest after he confessed about his behavior, according to the report. He was charged with disruption of school function and released to his mother.
---
Information from: The Stuart News, http://www.tcpalm.com/



http://www.bigmikerant.blogspot.com/

This is (in my opinion), absurd.

He was arrested for intentionally "passing gas". You can now be arrested for having a bodily function at an inappropriate time and place.

If someone could please tell me how, I'd like to learn this skill, so I can pass it along to my children. He really got arrested for turning off the computers and causing a disruption, however it is sensational to report it this way.

What a load.

Thankx for reading my rant !

bigmike

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants. They will be posted even if you don't agree with me in the comments section on each post.

And then the fight started........

AND THEN THE FIGHT STARTED……

• My wife sat down on the couch next to me as I was flipping channels. She asked, 'What's on TV?' I said, 'Dust.' And then the fight started....
• My wife was hinting about what she wanted for our upcoming anniversary. She said, 'I want something shiny that goes from 0 to 150 in about 3 seconds.' I bought her a scale. And then the fight started...
• When I got home last night, my wife demanded that I take her someplace expensive... so, I took her to a gas station. And then the fight started...
• After retiring, I went to the Social Security office to apply for Social Security. The woman behind the counter asked me for my driver's license to verify my age. I looked in my pockets and realized I had left my wallet at home. I told the woman that I was very sorry, but I would have to go home and come back later. The woman said, 'Unbutton your shirt'. So I opened my shirt revealing my curly silver hair. She said, 'That silver hair on your chest is proof enough for me' and she processed my Social Security application. When I got home, I excitedly told my wife about my experience at the Social Security office. She said, 'You should have dropped your pants. You might have gotten disability, too.' And then the fight started...
• My wife and I were sitting at a table at my high school reunion, and I kept staring at a drunken lady swigging her drink as she sat alone at a nearby table. My wife asked, 'Do you know her?' 'Yes,' I sighed, 'She's my old girlfriend. I understand she took to drinking right after we split up those many years ago, and I hear she hasn't been sober since.' 'My God!' says my wife, 'who would think a person could go on celebrating t hat long?' And then the fight started...
• I rear-ended a car this morning. So, there we were alongside the road and slowly the other driver got out of his car. You know how sometimes you just get soooo stressed and little things just seem funny? Yeah, well I couldn't believe it... he was a DWARF!!! He stormed over to my car, looked up at me, and shouted, 'I AM NOT HAPPY!' So, I looked down at him and said, 'Well, then which one are you?' And then the fight started...
  

Bob was in trouble. He forgot his wedding anniversary. His wife was really pissed. She told him "Tomorrow morning, I expect to find a gift in the driveway that goes from 0 to 200 in 6 seconds AND IT BETTER BE THERE !!"The next morning he got up early and left for work. When his wife woke up, she looked out the window and sure enough there was a box gift-wrapped in the middle of the driveway.Confused, the wife put on her robe and ran out to the driveway, brought the box back in the house. She opened it and found a brand new bathroom scale.

Bob has been missing since Friday.

Thankx for reading my rant !

bigmike

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

Marketing is still a big fat lie !

OK. I'll be the first one to admit, in order to use the rest of this article as any basis for conversation, you are asking marketing geniuses to not put their best product foot forward. They get paid to make you think you absolutely have to have their junk or their service and you will not be a fit human being without it.

Here's the issue as I see it.

Most Marketing is a big fat lie. They (ad agencies) call it sales techniques.

I call it lying to sell Junk.

It's not a stretch, it's not a fib, it's not a shading of the truth, it's a big fat lie.

Here's why I think like that.

1. Yelling the name of a car or product or dealership 74 times in the course of a commercial along with the phone number, does not create urgency in the mind of the consumer. It does not create "impressions". It just invites the gullible to buy a product that they now cannot forget even if they wanted to. Similar to having a song stuck in your head.


2. No one really has a shape anywhere remotely close to the shape of any supermodel or anywhere close the shape of any magazine model or porn star. Out of all the women I know, not one of them has ever spent $100,000 on the necessary plastic surgery it takes to create this illusion. The problem is that our daughters think they are "fat" when they don't look like some surgically enhanced, photoshopped, airbrushed version of the real person.


3. It does not matter if you call in the next ten minutes or 10 hours. You'll still get the same deal as anybody else who calls in from their trailer park to order the junk they saw on the infomercial at 3am. The technology does not exist which allows ad agencies to control call centers based on when a commercial ran in your time zone on your cable outlet. Also on a related note: If a commercial says "Wait, that's not all- we'll double your order, etc", then the crap you are ordering is not worth anywhere near their "value price" in the first place. When they say "that's a 75$ value", what they really means is we tried to sell it for 75$ and nobody would even come close to this junk for that price so we had to cut the price in half in order to sell it to you. Guess what? The markup is still more than 99%. Plastic caulk edgers can be made from any cool-whip lid for nothing. Molded plastic, while not free, is never worth more than a couple of cents by the time you see it on an infomercial.


4. Just because it says "New and Improved" on the box, does not mean the product is new and improved. Most of the time, the packaging is what is new and improved. Anytime you see these words it really means that the manufacturer had to figure out a way to raise the price somehow, so they reduced the amount in the container by 1% and increased the price by 5%. Now, that is a new and improved box and a new and improved price , and the product is "Old and the same". Don't fall for that one either. Their is really no value in the words "Lifetime Guarantee" either, unless it is from one the three companies that will probably be around in ten years. If you buy a widget from "Aqueduct sales" with a lifetime guarantee, it will not help you when they go out of business 2 weeks from now. No company= No guarantee. Put the guarantee on a box and take a dump in it. You will then have a guaranteed box of crap.


5. No One has ever ran through a meadow of three foot tall grass into their lovers arms. Too many stickers, burrs, insects, uneven ground and broken glass. Nobody ever runs through a meadow with freshly washed hair, only to have it get all hot and sweaty and need to be washed again to remove the junk in it from the sweat.


6. The offer you saw advertised on TV at the car dealership has never been used or offered.. No one ever gets Cash back. The money is added and applied to the price of the car. There is no deal. the price of the car was increased by the amount of the incentive in most cases, Or they want a bigger down payment and have a higher interest rate than you want or the "bank" wants the payments extended longer, or you have to buy an extra warranty. There is no DEAL. There is no "Boss" in the back approving your car deal or purchase. The salesman went to the candy machine. They leave you sitting in the room with the door closed on purpose to make you sweat, to get you to be emotionally invested in the car. Walk away, fast. . Come back in an hour and ask if they are ready to really deal. You will get better results. Trust me


7. No matter how cool it may look on TV, trust me, never and I mean never, dance your way down a NY city street looking at your shadow, while listening to your music device. It is an invitation to a mugging. And you will look stupid.


8. A very low percentage of people who join the military (like less than one half of one percent) ever get to fly an airplane, command a large ship, fly a jet, fire a major weapon system, carry a cool sword and dress up in the cool blue uniform. Most of the time you join, you work your butt off doing mundane things, you wait and then you get out. Nobody ever climbs cool mountains all by themselves, flies a jet for the fun of it, or just applies to be a sub commander and walks right into the job. All of those jobs are taken by people who have dedicated their lives to being the best at their craft as they can be. You will peel potatoes and empty garbage cans just like you would be doing in your home town, only you will do it in Podunkviklle aboard a ship somewhere or on a remote base in a hostile country.


9. There is not a product made on this planet that will get red kool aid out of white carpeting. No matter how many times Billy Mays says so, OXY-CLEAN or whatever junk anybody is selling on TV, the red stain is there to stay even if you had a towel and some of that crap ready as soon as you spilled it. The are only three methods for getting it out. One, the carpet must be treated with a stain blocker like scotchguard or something like it, Two, Cover it up with a throw rug (or try to bleach it out and when the first two fails(and they will, believe me) , replace the carpet. Same for magic glue (yeah right), 50 machine washings, The last car polish you will ever need and any of the rest of the junk in this category. Two words. Barbie - Unrealistic. Two more words . GIJOE- Gay.


10. A mop is a mop. A broom is a broom. A spray nozzle is a spray nozzle. Nothing they do to it and no color they make it will ever make it worth $19.99. Ever. Even if they say order in the next ten minutes and we'll double your order for free, keep in mind that they are selling a plastic broom handle, with plastic bristles for $10 each. It just ain't worth it. No air purifier is worth three easy payments of 69$. Why would you pay $300 for a fan ? A rubber tip on the end of a rubber broom don't make it worth $29.95

Thankx for reading my rant !

bigmike

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

Microsoft Office 2007

As some of you may know, I write a little bit of code sometimes. Usually things like automated forms, database applications, Outlook automation and etc.

 

For the last couple of weeks I have been updating one of my projects for a client of mine, that was started way back when Office was Office 97. Every year they make changes to their programs, I update the automation and things go on. Not this year. The parent company of the guy I work for, switched from Office 03 to Office 07.

 

Gawd, what a mess they have made out of what was a pretty good product. You leaned to navigate, to do certain things to use the bells and whistles and how to make the program do what you want it to do and wham ! Nothing works anymore like it should. Nothing is easy, Nothing is where it should be, code is screwed up, templates are plastered all over the place, projects blown completely up.

 

To upgrade what I have would be more than $950 (but it is supposedly not about money?)

 

The bottom line is this:

 

It (Microsoft Office 2007 - All versions) sucks.

The price sucks, the ribbon sucks, compatibility sucks, It just sucks.

I hate it when a big company like this pillages us and collapses our wallets just because their last product (remember Vista?) tanked.

It sucks too.

They took a pretty good product that took them more then ten years to get right and screwed it up royally.

 

You may as well get used to it though, if they cared what we thought they would spend the money making what they already have better and not force feed us this crap to have to stop and learn all over again.

 

It may be a better piece of software, but I don't have the time to stop everything and learn all I know all over again just so they can make more money.

 

What the Hell is a ribbon anyhow ? That sucks too.

 

Another wonderful product from Microsoft.

 

Oh and by the way ? Microsoft suc.....

 

 

Thankx for reading my rant ! 

 

bigmike

 

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/  

 

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

 

Check out my business at http://answrtek.com

 

This is bassackwards !!!

This is bassackwards !!!

How is it that a corporate CEO can make millions of dollars per year and millions more in bonuses and then feel justified in laying off people in his company in order to bump up the share price for the shareholders? Don’t the shareholders realize that at some point they could bump up their own share price, invest directly in their own companies and make more profit by having a nimble well trained and well staffed company?

At least they would if it wasn’t the same 250 people on every board in every company in America. There is no glass ceiling anymore, its an ASS ceiling. Sarbanes Oxley is a joke. It is still the same good old boys network running everything, and they still have all ten fingers in the till. Shoot, I know people who have 800 + credit ratings right now, run successful businesses, and the banks will not loan money for any reason. they are afraid to because they view it as their duty to protect the bank, and not to protect their depositors, their communities or the people in it.

Thank the FED and Ben Bernanke for that. I appreciate it Warren. Thanks a lot Mr. Gates. Keep pumping up the banks, somebody has to protect the billionaires money I guess.

In the same train of thought, Why is it that the news will report that a company laid off thousands of people, or closed a plant or sold a whole division and that bumps up the share price, and they paint it out like it is a good thing ? Are these people really that stupid?

Or are we?

Seems to me bad news (less capacity and less employees to do the work), should key the directors and the shareholders and even the general Public that they have the wrong upper management in the first place. Seems to me they ought to hold the CEO responsible for the problem, not the hourly staff. The CEO can hang on for 10 years and he has a contract they have to buy him out of to get rid of him. Us? It’s a greased banana and don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

They think the current money crisis was caused by credit swaps? By subordinated debentures? They are crazy ! (and mistaken) Here is a word of advice. Even if you have to eat crap with a serving spoon at work right now, keep your job no matter what you do. You lose your job today and you are screwed. Another one at the same money is highly improbable. You better stay focused on keeping that paycheck coming right on in.

The new world economy is stacked against us. This current crisis wasn't caused by a bank, it was caused by greed. Wall street greed. The rules were made up by people lining their own pockets with our money. 25 points different in a complicated credit score based on obscure no logic reasoning and they figure out how to charge you thousands more dollars to buy a house or a car. You wonder why nobody is buying houses or cars right now?

It makes very little practical sense to fire the older workers because of high wages, to hire younger workers because of low wages, because to do so makes the purchasing power of the money they are paid (the younger worker) worth less. You earn less, everything costs more and your dollar doesn’t go anywhere as far as it used to.

Global warming? Yeah right, after we burn all the couches and chairs and dinner tables to keep warm maybe.

This crisis is because we are busy allowing companies to not pay taxes. It is because we are busy allowing employers to please their pocket books by merging with each other and then firing thousands of workers at once to manage their share price. Fannie mae and Freddie mac failed because the price of food went up, because ethanol increased the price of everything that is made with corn by 45%. They failed because we sat idly by and watched our auto makers pay workers 81$ per hour and then wondered why they lost money and cannot sell cars. They failed because the price of a gallon of gasoline doubled in 8 months and a fill up was 2 times as expensive at the end of the year as it was on the first day of the year. They failed because electricity, natural gas, jet fuel, diesel fuel and heating oil rose to levels never seen before while we did nothing but wring our hands.

You wonder why credit card companies are going under? Simple, everybody they gave credit to, has lost their jobs. they are in foreclosure, their cars have been repossessed, their bank accounts are empty and most are contemplating some form of bankruptcy, suicide, divorce or all three.

You think I worry about my 401k? Not my biggest worry right now, I assure you. I could care less what the price of a share of Ford, GM or Chrysler is right now as long as I can afford a gallon of gas to get to work, I'm good thanks. Heck, I care more about what a loaf of bread or a gallon of milk costs right now than an automakers share price.

Hundreds of Thousands of people have lost their jobs since January 2007. Most of them had to take work at less than one-half the salary they used to make. You wonder why banks failed? Hell, I wonder how I'm going to eat, how I'm going to afford to get to work. I drive 3 times as far , to make half as much, on gas that is twice as expensive. And you want me to feel sorry for a bank or an auto maker? The numbers these idiots ought to be concerned with is the jobless number. Fix the jobless problem and you have fixed everything else. If I have a job, I'll pay my mortgage, my credit cards, my bank loans and etc.

You do not have to "fix" really anything else. Just quit screwing with my job. !!!!Stop rewarding CEO's who think they have to trim expenses by firing thousands of workers to make wall street analysts happy so their share price doesn't drop. Just stop the stupidity.

In companies like the ones I just alluded to, the CEO’s of those firms have one common personality type. They think, for some strange reason that laying off people, constantly firing and constant criticism will shake up the place and make people more productive. I just don’t get it. What happens when you constantly shake up the place is everybody starts looking for a way to protect their job and keeps their head down, with very little effort going towards getting and productive work done in the first place. Dilbert makes more and more sense every day.

For some years now corporate America has been chasing a share price at the expense of everything else. We have almost wiped out our ability to manufacture everything from tube socks to washing machines in our quest for lower costs and higher share prices. Large retailers like Wal-Mart have contributed to this idiocy for a long time and I’ve yet to hear anybody ask the question that seems pretty obvious to ask.

How are we going to be able to buy anything in this new “World Economy” , if we don’t have anywhere to work that pays a decent wage and if there are no companies left to be loyal to? What are we supposed to be loyal to now anyway? A Brand? “Yes maam, I’d like one TIDE t-shirt and two pairs of Viagra socks please”. Get a grip !

See the thing is , we are in the middle of a fallacy that is a downward spiral and everything we are doing right now is managing that spiral downwards.

Less jobs is less money. Less money is less purchasing. Less purchasing is a negative economic trend. We will not be able soon to buy anything made in China because we won’t have any money to buy it with.

Who are all these poor third world nations going to sell to if they can’t sell it to us?

I couldn’t tell as I am late for my shift at McDonalds.

Today is dumpster clean out night and the kids are starving !!

Thankx for reading my rant !

bigmike

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

Americans

I've had this for several years and originally got it off the internet, somewhere. I didn't write this but thought it was a good time to post it again.

 

Thankx for reading my rant ! 

 

bigmike

 

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/  

 

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

 

________________________________________________________

 

Finally someone says it right !!!

 

You probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but  there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone  who killed an American, any American.

 

So an Australian dentist wrote the following to let everyone know what an American is, so they would know when they found one:

 

An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German,Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese,Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani, or Afghan. An American may also be a Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.

 

An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses. An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.

 

An American is from the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God given right of each person the pursuit of happiness.

 

An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need.When Afghanistan was overrun by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country. As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan.

 

Americans welcome the best, the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best athletes. But they also welcome the least.The national symbol of America, The Statue of Liberty,welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America.. Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better life for their families. I've been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 other countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists. So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and every bloodthirsty tyrant in the history of the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.

 

Pass this around the World.

 

These are Headlines. Yeah right.

These are Headlines. Yeah right.

I'm a fairy friggin godmother.

 

Click a link to read the stories (if you can call them that !)

 

Obama 'to use executive orders'

 

Quotes by clergy members about Obama's election

 

Obama already holds bully pulpit

 

Transition, too, for Michelle Obama to first lady

 

Barack a Hot Name for New Babies

 

No wonder the rest of the world doesn't really take us seriously  a lot of the time.

 

We think this is what people are interested in.

 

Thankx for reading my rant ! 

 

bigmike

 

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/  

 

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

 

Check out my business at http://answrtek.com

 

.......And the Headlines said " OBAMA Wins !" The youtube debate !

.......And the Headlines said " OBAMA Wins !"

 

Note ** There is a few youtube links in this Rant. If they don't click, just copy and past them in a browser that can play youtube video files. All of them are from the youtube site.

 

I woke up on the morning of November 5th, 2008 and Obama won the election.

 

Was I sad? Was I angry? Was I depressed? Am I indignant? Am I bitter?

 

The answer to those questions and every one like them is No

 

I am not. I am an American. I participated, I voted, I made my choice, I advanced my ideals and I was outnumbered.

 

This time.

 

Obama will be president for 8 years, mark my words.

 

Nobody could fix this mess in 4 years, trust me.

 

The reason is very simple. Stunning simplicity in its formation and irreversible in its logic.

 

It's a great day in America Everybody ! Why ?

• (Awesome video, if you don't look at any of the rest of them, look at this one below!!!)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdRVQ4xwwmQ

 

The fact is, he (Obama) is a Democrat, and I am not. Mathematically and logically 1 out of 2 had to win. One wins and one loses. That is the promise of American politics. Always has been and always will be. The fact is though that more people voted in this election cycle than had voted in any of the past 5. More first time voters actually registered and then voted than any other point in history. The only demographic group McCain won totally on election day was Male, White , 64 plus years of age. Live to fight another day. Get over it. Stay focused on today.

 

Bush was not a poor President the whole time he was in office. He was right for a part of the time. I would argue we needed somebody just like him at a certain point in our history. His time is now past, but we needed him just the same. Bush was the right guy at the right time in our history for 2 or 3 years after 9-11. We needed a tough guy to say , "This is BS and we are not gonna take it." At that singular point in time, I was never prouder of an American president who said "Bring it on". I was never prouder of an American President who while touring and climbing over the rubble at ground zero, heard a firefighter say "Mr. President, We can't hear you", to which he responded with a bullhorn " Well I can hear you, and soon the whole world we hear all of us!", or something like that. You tube link of that moment http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiSwqaQ4VbA

 

After that we lost our way (as Republicans) . Just about when he landed on the carrier and pronounced an end to major combat operations in Iraq, proclaimed "Mission Accomplished " , and put some idiot named L. Paul Bremmer in charge of rebuilding Iraq (who screwed the pooch in a very, very big way ), is when we forgot what the hell we were trying to accomplish as a nation.  What were they thinking ? AAARRRGGGHHH !!!

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GJUGUYsm68

 

We didn't win this election and lost seats in Congress because we deserved to lose. The best we could offer America was attack ads, pit bulls and My Friends.

The candidates were a bunch of do nothing same as always , elitist, professional politicians who couldn't put together an effective message, execute an coherent strategy and did not have the ability manage the events in any tactical sense of the word. We blew it.

 

I think that you live in the moment. Sometimes those are great moments in our history.

All are monumental and defining points in American History.

Some good, some great, some notorious, and some pretty stupid things said by some pretty smart people.

 

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB6hLg3PRbY
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk&feature=related
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjWDrTXMgF8
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiIP_KDQmXs

I voted for Clinton twice. Why? For the exact same reason I voted for Bush twice.

 

Who were my choices when Bush ran ? Al Gore and John Kerry?

 

That's the best you could do?

 

Who were my choices when Clinton ran ? George H.W. Bush (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP9_kkzfN-w) and  Bob Dole?

 

Jesus get a grip ! I couldn't imagine somebody saying the 6 scariest words in America " Ladies and Gentlemen, President Al Gore. "

 

A couple though are imbedded in our psyche and are pretty awesome.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_m12cRlSZw&NR=1
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2lfnD5aokY

I profess to be a Republican, but not one cut from the crazy cloth of the right wing Neo-Conservative branch of my party. I'm not cut from the can't make a decision elements in American politics either. I'm not a religious nut or a gun nut or a zealot. I generally vote for the candidate, sometimes it is a republican , but not always.

 

Fact is my candidate this time was Fred Thompson.

 

He didn't make the cut.

 

I have an opinion and am not afraid to express it.

 

A lot of facts played into Obama's win, and win he did.

 

"Win big he did", is what Yoda would say.

 

Convince, Overwhelmingly and Stunningly. 

 

John McCain ran and he lost. 

 

Convince, Overwhelmingly and Stunningly. 

 

I didn't vote for Obama, but he is now my President too.

 

Criticize him, but understand you'll probably piss me off if you make fun of America in the process.

 

Just so we understand each other. !

 

P.S. - I hope he gets it right.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Cil5LXsqAM

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jll5baCAaQU

 

 

Thankx for reading my rant ! 

 

bigmike

 

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/  

 

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

 

Check out my business at http://answrtek.com

 

One week to go and we still have not got one real decent answer from Obama about anything

 

The first thing I want to say is " aaaarrrrrgggggghhhhhh !!!!!"

 

There is one week to go before the election and things are as silly as they ever have been in the Presidential race. For the first time in history, the entire media industry is trying to make the election go the way they want it to by refusing to report real news and ask a single tough question. Obama has never had to answer for any of this stuff and we are all responsible because we haven't objected to the obvious bias and liberal attitude represented in their coverage.

 

You wonder why newspapers are failing ? Its not because they are not relevant, it is because they have made them irrelevant with their coverage.

 

We're less than a month from the election, and we still haven't unmasked the real Sen. Barack Obama, the radical, extremist, leftist with dangerous associations and dangerous plans and platforms. With the help of the dishonest, fraudulent, and biased mainstream media, Sen. Obama not only hasn't answered critically important questions, but also hasn't even been asked these questions. And apparently some voters are ready to vote for a candidate whose only accomplishments are pretty speeches.

 

The way I see it, a totally qualified Candidate, John McCain , is the one the media can't wait to dig up bad news about I cannot understand how they can continue to beat the bushes dead with so many non-issues day after day, week after week and somehow we just put up with it and continue to go along with it. Obama has essentially said hundreds of times that McCain is just like George Bush, and really nothing could be further from the truth. George was dependant upon and is controlled by neo-conservative, ultra right wing ideology and he never made it close to the center in managing his Presidency. McCain has always been about the middle point of view, except for a couple of issues. The fact that he and his family own 7 homes , 5 of which are not homes they live in is the story? Real estate investing is not allowed in politics? 

 

Obama on the other hand has had issue after issue arise from his past and from his record and somehow none of it matters. He can have all the things that have been exposed about him wrote up in one long story and somehow it slides right off of him and it somehow does not matter. I just don't get it. I don't see how anyone can be fooled by this guy. Smooth talker and so are most lawyers and criminals for that matter. Barack Obama has displayed extremely poor judgment in his association with Jeremiah Wright, a black separatist; William Ayers, a domestic terrorist; Tony Resko, arrested for bribery and extortion; and Raila Odinga, a Kenyan politician who has slaughtered thousands in the opposition party. Journalists have yet to verify Obama's platform on taxes, health care or education. A tax break for 95 percent of taxpayers can't be done; IRS shows of the 132 million tax returns, 40 million paid no tax at all. But increasing the capital gains and dividend taxes will hurt individuals earning as little as $42,000 a year. Basic economics tells us companies don't pay taxes, those purchasing their goods and services do. And, increasing taxes on small businesses, they can attempt to pass the costs along, lay off employees, reduce benefits or all of the above. Obama's plans of tax, spend, nationalize and redistribution of wealth will destroy the very pillars that make this country great.

 

We are gonna get just exactly what we wish for with this guy.

 

You don't like Bush because he has poor Judgment? Fine. Fire him and get somebody else.

 

Replace him with somebody who has better judgment.

 

Barack Obama ain't that guy.

 

• He's had the Rev. Wright issue. Sat in that church for 20 years and he never objected until Rev. Wright embarrassed him.  Makes a pretty speech and all is forgiven.

 

• Associates with a criminal ,Tony Resko, the convicted felon who assisted in the funding of Obama’s home.

 

• How about his ties to the ACORN organization, the ones perpetrating voter fraud now and the ones his campaign gave over $800,000? Has the mainstream media even covered the ACORN story?

 

• Barack Obama went into a Toledo neighborhood, and while there, came across a man, later known as Joe “the plumber.” Joe asked a question concerning Obama’s economic plan. Obama, among other statements suggesting “collectivism” rather than “individualism,” revealed his overall policy in his words, “when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everyone.” The last time we heard this was from Karl Marx. They spent the next couple of weeks destroying the reputation of Joe the Plumber. God forbid anybody should ask King Obama a tough question.

 

• How about Bill Ayers? Has NBC stationed a satellite truck outside his hone? It is refreshing to hear that the University of Nebraska, and the people of Nebraska refuse to allow this unrepentant terrorist on its campus. Of course, when he did most of his bombings and killing of people, Obama was only 8 years old. Read all about Bill Ayers at , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Ayers.

 

• In the last debate, McCain asked Obama, “When have you challenged members of your own party as the governor (Palin) and I have done?” The question went unanswered. Tough times at home and abroad demand leaders of tested mettle.

 

• Why was it not made known that he is the second highest recipient of money from Fannie or Freddie? How come he gets a free pass from the reporters who are shaping your opinions of him.

 

Why does none of this stuff matter when selecting a president?

 

Why can we say ???

• Dwight David Eisenhower
• John Fitzgerald Kennedy
• Lyndon Baines Johnson
• Richard Milhous Nixon
• Gerald Rudolff Ford, Jr.
• James Earl Carter
• Ronald Wilson Reagan
• George Herbert Walker Bush
• William Jefferson Clinton
• George Walker Bush

 

But not (because if we do we are racist and unfairly attacking Muslims):

• Barack Hussein Obama ?

 

 

The following from an online article at : http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-113477

 

1. What precisely was the nature of Senator Obama's relationship with convicted real estate developer Tony Resko? Why did he engage in a real estate deal with Rezko when he was under federal investigation? What "advice" did he give Obama about buying a house in Chicago?

2. Why has Obama proclaimed that he has been fighting alongside ACORN, a radical leftwing organization, his "entire career"?

3. What exactly has been Obama's experience with ACORN?

4. What was the nature of the "training" Obama provided to ACORN activists in Chicago?

5. What exactly occurred during the "actions" that Obama organized as a community organizer? Did the "actions" involve intimidation by any of the participants Obama led?

6. Why did ACORN activists humiliate bankers into giving bad loans after Obama trained them?

7. Why did Obama seek ACORN's endorsement in his state senate race?

8. What, if any, support did ACORN provide Obama in his 2004 Senate race?

9. Why was Obama silent on the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reform package in 2005?

10. Why did Obama say that sub-prime lending was a "good thing"?

11. Why did Obama support $500 million a year going to ACORN-like organizations in the housing bailout this past summer?

12. Why did the Woods Fund and the Joyce Foundation direct millions to organizations such as ACORN while Obama was serving on the board of those foundations?

13. Why did Madeleine Talbot, one time fiery leader of Chicago ACORN, invite Obama to help train their organizers in the 1990s?

14. Why did Obama attend a fundraiser at George Soros's home during his 2004 campaign?

15. Why didn't Obama return campaign contributions from George Soros?

16. Why did Obama vote to raise taxes on people making as little as $42,000 per year?

17. Has Senator Obama or his campaign coordinated with St. Louis law enforcement authorities who are threatening criminal libel charges against critics of Obama who make statements that are found to by law enforcement officials to be "false"?

18. Are the Obama campaign's "internet action alerts" directing supporters to overwhelm call-in radio show that are critical of Obama consistent with the fair and open campaign the Senator has pledged to run?

19. When did Senator Obama first meet domestic terrorist William Ayers? Did Obama know Ayres as a student at Columbia in the early 1980s?

 

 

I can think of at least 10 more questions I cannot read about the answers to in the media, because he has never been made to account for them.

 

Here are 10 that should be answered before you vote for this guy.

 

You want to vote for this guy? Fine, ask him these 10 questions and see what you get as a response.

 

You can't ask the media though, because they are in love with him and will not ask these questions.

 

• Why do you have a long list of questionable associates that are racists, bigots, anti-Americans and even terrorists? You know who I am talking about: Reverend Jeremiah "God Damn" America" Wright, William "Bomber of Pentagon" Ayers; Bernadine "The Terrorists" Dohrn; Fr. Michael "Racist" Pfleger, Tony "Convicted Felon and Slumlord" Resko, Professor Rashid "Known Terrorist Sympathizer and Spokesman for Terrorist Organization" Khalidi, and the list goes on. Are you aware that you could not get the security clearance required for a federal employee because of your associations?

 

• Why do you lie about these associations when finally confronted with them? For example, of the terrorist Mr. Ayers you said he's just a guy who lives in the neighborhood. The truth is that you have had a long and close association with him. You launched your political career in his house. You wrote a blurb for one of his books. You served on boards with him. You were on speakers' panel with him. You headed a board of an organization that doled out $100 million of dollars working with Mr. Ayers, money that went to radicalize school children. Does that sound like just a guy who lives in the neighborhood? Your latest doubletalk on  Mr. Ayers was that you thought he was "rehabilitated." That's baloney because as late as 9/11 he told the New York Times he should have done more bombings. Then there's terrorist Mr. Khalidi, who you describe as just another guy in the neighborhood. When you, Mr. Obama, were on the board of the Woods Fund (2002), you participated in awarding $70,000 grant to the American Action Network, A Chicago-based group founded by Mr. Khalidi and his wife. Mr. Khalidi held a fund-raiser for your political run. Was that a payoff for the grant? You knew or should have known what Mr. Khalidi stood for and that he had close ties to the PLO, when the U.S. State Department classified it as a terrorist group. And when Mr. Khalidi left Chicago for New York, you delivered one of the testimonials for this terrorist.

 

• Why do you use the same incredible line every time one of your questionable associations is exposed? You've said, that's not the Rev. Wright I knew? That's not the Rezko I knew. Why do you have so much trouble figuring out these shady characters even after close associations that run for decades?

 

• What does you inability to level with the American people on these associations say about your honesty and trustworthiness...and your values and character? What do these associations with radicals, bigots, terrorists and all the rest say about your judgment?

 

• Can you name another presidential candidate in our history who had so many close associations with terrorists, racists, bigots, and anti-Americans? Birds of a feather flock together. What does that line up say about you, Sen. Obama? Why is it that you have received endorsements from Hamas, the terrorist organization; Fidel Castro, the former dictator of Cuba; Louis Farrakhan, the notorious anti-American anti-Semite who just called you the "Messiah"; and the Black Panther Party? Sen. Obama can't control his endorsements, but he can control which ones he announces on his Web site. The Black Panther endorsement was posted on his Web site. Doesn't that suggest Mr. Obama is proud of the endorsement by the Black Panthers, a group that is openly anti-White, anti-Jewish and anti-American. Only when criticism came in was the endorsement from the site taken down. Why can't you do what's right, before your wrongdoing is exposed and before it becomes politically expedient to act?

 

• In one of your books, you admitted you sought out Marxist professors at universities. You were attracted to Rev. Wright and his Trinity Church, a bastion of Marxist black liberation theology. You have had a long association with William Ayres who rails and rants against capitalism and America. When running for the Illinois Senate, you sought out and obtained the support of the Marxist "New Party" in Chicago in 1995. You had a communist mentor when growing up. You advocate redistribution of income. You believe in big government as do all the tax and spend liberals that you swim with. Does that explain why there is a heavy touch of socialism in your worldview and in your programs?

 

• Why did you say American troops in Afghanistan are just "air raiding villages and killing civilians?" Do you want to apologize now for that comment? Is that the way you support the troops? Is that why you refused to wear an American flag on your lapel? Do you support some of the other slanderous comments made by your fellow Democrats about American servicemen? For example, Rep. John Murtha said American soldiers were killing civilians in cold blood and never apologized when these soldiers were acquitted. Then there is Sen. John Kerry who said American troops were terrorizing women and children in the dark of night, or Sen. Dick Durbin who compared our troops to Nazis.

 

• You'll recall that moveon.org ran the infamous advertisement that said "General Petraeus or General Betray Us." Why did you refuse to vote for the Senate resolution (the Cornyn resolution) condemning that advertisement? Why did you hide in the cloakroom when that vote was being taken?

 

• Why did you say Iran, Cuba and Venezuela are just tiny countries and are not a real threat to us? Aren't you aware that Iran is now sending in weapons and people to kill our troops in Iraq? Aren't you aware they are now developing nuclear weapons and would not hesitate to give terrorists a dirty bomb that might wipe out an American city? Aren't you aware that Iran is the leading supporter of international terrorism? Do you, as critics often say, still have a pre-9/11 mentality?

 

• Will you at last admit the surge in Iraq was a success? You opposed the surge and said it would increase ethnic violence and fail. And even after virtually everyone admits the surge has been a success, you still refuse to finally admit you were dead wrong and the surge has succeeded. A characteristic of presidential leadership is the ability to admit a mistake. Would you now at long last admit you were wrong on the surge and it is succeeding?

 

And this Ladies and gentlemen is the candidate that the liberal left wing ultra socialist media would have you believe is the answers to all of your prayers and is the one who will fix all that is wrong with America. It is he , the King Obama who will restore America's reputation and make us the leader we once were.

 

pu-lease. ! What a load of BS.

 

Check these links out. Now there is even a video which purports to show Obama praising a terrorist, and the L.A. times won't release it.

 

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-video29-2008oct29,0,7568849.story

 

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Blog/Default.aspx?id=301254

 

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,444628,00.html

 

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/10/28/la-times-refuses-release-tape-obama-praising-controversial-activist/

 

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZDFkMGE2MmM1M2Q5MmY0ZmExMzUxMWRhZGJmMTAyOGY=

 

 

 

 

Thankx for reading my rant ! 

 

bigmike

 

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/  

 

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Earmarks in Congress - The debate

 

More boring Political stuff.

 

I watched about an hour of the first debate the other night and then gave up and went to bed. I was too tired to listen to any more of it.

 

Obama sounded like a tired Professor trying to explain a slow moving chemical reaction and McCain should have just gotten pissed of and then got over it later.

 

One more "My Friends" and I was going to put a shoe in the TV.

 

I did put it on the DVR though and watched it again this morning.

 

Does everybody "get" what an Congressional Earmark is?

 

If not here is the definition.

 

Definitions of Congressional Earmark on the Web:

• To set aside funds for a specific purpose, use, or recipient. Generally speaking, virtually every appropriation is earmarked, and so are certain ...
  rules.house.gov/archives/glossary_fbp.htm
• A requirement that revenue be spent on a specific project or purpose, therefore intercepting the money before it is pooled with other revenue and appropriated as part of the General Fund. At the federal level, earmarking is often equated with pork spending.
  www.jwpcivitasinstitute.org/media/in-print/nc-public-policy-series/budget-and-taxation-key-terms
• To specify or set aside for a particular purpose
  en.wiktionary.org/wiki/earmark

They made a big to do about earmarks.

Earmarks are how Senators bring "Home the bacon" for their state, thus the term "Pork Barrel spending" is used to describe this kind of Budget request.

Literally Billions of dollars each year is spent as earmarks every year and usually nobody ever knows until some lackey staff member looks it up for a reporter.

Here are the facts from citizens against government waste.

You can look this up yourself at : http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer

We have 100 US Senators. 48 Democrats, 50 Republicans and 2 Independents.

	Totals	# Projects	Dollars Spent	Projects Per Senator	AVG Project
48	Democrat	5966	$9,194,000,000	124	$1,541,066
50	Republican	4198	$7,458,800,000	84	$1,776,751
2	Independent	122	$159,600,000	61	$1,308,197
100	All	10286	$16,812,400,000	103	$1,634,493

In 2008's Budget here is how the two main candidates used earmarks.

I'll attach the whole list also, but for clarity here are the main two.

Party

Senator

# of Projects

Total Dollars (Millions)

Extended Dollars

AVG Project

R

McCain

0

$0.00

$0

$0

D

Obama

53

$97.40

$97,400,000

$1,837,736

Now don't get me wrong, I do not think a Senator fighting for money for his state is wrong.

I think hiding it from discussion and sneaking it into the budget request each year is though. These ought to see the light of day and they don't.

The way the Senate operates in this regard is wrong and it should be changed.

Obama says he is the agent of change? 97.4 millions dollars of change, if you ask me. This looks like more of the same.

Almost nobody really knows what this 16.8 Billion dollars is spent on. Both parties have to clean it up.

Factually Republicans make about 60 requests less per senator, and Democrats spend on Average about $234,000 less per earmark, but the point is not lost on me here.

The average senator makes over 100 earmark requests per year. The average request is over 1.5 million dollars!

If you can not control this money, how do you think you are going to be able to control the budget and your own party asking for more and more and more.

The only answer that makes sense to me is this :

Future performance is dictated by past result.

Thankx for reading my rant ! 

 

bigmike

 

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/  

 

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.

 

Check out my business at http://answrtek.com

 

As Promised here is the complete list : From http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer

Citizens Against Government Waste 2008 Earmark Reports

 

 

   

 

Party	Senator	# of Projects	Total Dollars (Millions)	Extended Dollars	Avg Project
D	Akaka	59	$185.00	$185,000,000	$3,135,593
R	Alexander	60	$120.60	$120,600,000	$2,010,000
R	Allard	75	$95.70	$95,700,000	$1,276,000
R	Barrasso	5	$12.50	$12,500,000	$2,500,000
D	Baucus	92	$124.00	$124,000,000	$1,347,826
D	Bayh	87	$125.00	$125,000,000	$1,436,782
R	Bennett	89	$156.20	$156,200,000	$1,755,056
D	Biden	70	$119.70	$119,700,000	$1,710,000
D	Bingaman	150	$280.90	$280,900,000	$1,872,667
R	Bond	142	$309.80	$309,800,000	$2,181,690
D	Boxer	100	$120.00	$120,000,000	$1,200,000
D	Brown	59	$95.70	$95,700,000	$1,622,034
R	Brownback	81	$89.60	$89,600,000	$1,106,173
R	Bunning	21	$23.60	$23,600,000	$1,123,810
R	Burr	89	$117.10	$117,100,000	$1,315,730
D	Byrd	111	$386.00	$386,000,000	$3,477,477
D	Cantwell	174	$163.00	$163,000,000	$936,782
D	Cardin	145	$236.40	$236,400,000	$1,630,345
D	Carper	66	$85.00	$85,000,000	$1,287,879
D	Casey	165	$176.60	$176,600,000	$1,070,303
R	Chambliss	108	$127.00	$127,000,000	$1,175,926
D	Clinton	281	$296.20	$296,200,000	$1,054,093
R	Coburn	0	$0.00	$0	$0
R	Cochran	245	$892.20	$892,200,000	$3,641,633
R	Coleman	94	$180.90	$180,900,000	$1,924,468
R	Collins	69	$81.30	$81,300,000	$1,178,261
D	Conrad	77	$118.30	$118,300,000	$1,536,364
R	Corker	12	$33.90	$33,900,000	$2,825,000
R	Cornyn	75	$121.90	$121,900,000	$1,625,333
R	Craig	88	$97.30	$97,300,000	$1,105,682
R	Crapo	83	$83.10	$83,100,000	$1,001,205
R	DeMint	0	$0.00	$0	$0
R	Dodd	75	$129.20	$129,200,000	$1,722,667
R	Dole	110	$133.60	$133,600,000	$1,214,545
R	Domenici	168	$259.80	$259,800,000	$1,546,429
D	Dorgan	91	$178.50	$178,500,000	$1,961,538
D	Durbin	136	$256.30	$256,300,000	$1,884,559
R	Ensign	34	$92.60	$92,600,000	$2,723,529
R	Enzi	3	$10.30	$10,300,000	$3,433,333
D	Feingold	0	$0.00	$0	$0
D	Feinstein	189	$294.00	$294,000,000	$1,555,556
R	Graham	59	$99.20	$99,200,000	$1,681,356
R	Grassley	154	$321.40	$321,400,000	$2,087,013
R	Gregg	63	$93.80	$93,800,000	$1,488,889
R	Hagel	53	$73.60	$73,600,000	$1,388,679
D	Harkin	194	$302.80	$302,800,000	$1,560,825
R	Hatch	67	$103.50	$103,500,000	$1,544,776
R	Hutchison	145	$255.60	$255,600,000	$1,762,759
R	Inhofe	99	$144.40	$144,400,000	$1,458,586
D	Inouye	131	$385.50	$385,500,000	$2,942,748
R	Isakson	78	$119.70	$119,700,000	$1,534,615
D	Johnson	100	$130.10	$130,100,000	$1,301,000
D	Kennedy	124	$192.10	$192,100,000	$1,549,194
D	Kerry	124	$138.80	$138,800,000	$1,119,355
D	Klobuchar	99	$178.40	$178,400,000	$1,802,020
D	Kohl	121	$148.40	$148,400,000	$1,226,446
R	Kyl	27	$69.00	$69,000,000	$2,555,556
D	Landrieu	161	$458.50	$458,500,000	$2,847,826
D	Lautenberg	223	$288.90	$288,900,000	$1,295,516
D	Leahy	96	$163.30	$163,300,000	$1,701,042
D	Levin, Carl	255	$301.40	$301,400,000	$1,181,961
I	Lieberman	101	$149.40	$149,400,000	$1,479,208
D	Lincoln	107	$230.00	$230,000,000	$2,149,533
R	Lott	74	$242.70	$242,700,000	$3,279,730
R	Lugar	113	$128.00	$128,000,000	$1,132,743
R	Martinez	80	$115.80	$115,800,000	$1,447,500
R	McCain	0	$0.00	$0	$0