Dahling...

Come november, the White House had better start stocking a lot more smoked salmon and nibbily bits:
http://towleroad.typepad.com/towleroad/2004/07/shed_be_an_iabs.html

JC

I never really paid much attention to Jimmy Carter. I was just 7 when he didn't get reelected, so it was all Reganomics and jelly beans by the time I was old enough to pay attention to politics. (Although I do remember being disappointed when Regan got elected. How's that for starting a Democrat early?)

I've also been avoiding much of the DNC convention coverage this week. I figure it's all going to be a bunch of political chest-thumping. But I took at look at this paragraph of Carter's speech from last night, and was just in awe:

In repudiating extremism we need to recommit ourselves to a few common- sense principles that should transcend partisan differences. First, we cannot enhance our own security if we place in jeopardy what is most precious to us, namely, the centrality of human rights in our daily lives and in global affairs. Second, we cannot maintain our historic self-confidence as a people if we generate public panic. Third, we cannot do our duty as citizens and patriots if we pursue an agenda that polarizes and divides our country. Next, we cannot be true to ourselves if we mistreat others. And finally, in the world at large we cannot lead if our leaders mislead.

Electablog has posted the text of his entire speech. It really is worth a read.

Machining

I haven't had time to do much blogging lately, and may not for a while. Three days a week, I've been taking training in the evenings to be able to use our machine shop. I've been making up engineering drawings for someone else to turn into real-world items for a while now, but taking them from a raw piece of stock to something else is a different experience. It's actually rather fun. And the fact the machinist that's doing the training is pretty cute doesn't hurt, either.

Oy veh

Following up on the previous post: Islam doesn't have a monopoly on religious freaks and weirdos. This guy needs to put down the weed and stop listening to oldies stations.

I will never understand some people

I was poking around in the web statistics again this afternoon, as I am occasionally wont to do, and notice that'd I had a visitor from Saudi Arabia. My first through was, "Wow, the Internet really is neat." Heck, I've never even been out of the country, and here I am basically talking to someone in the Middle East. My second thought was to see how they got to my site, and I noticed it was via a Google search for "what sodomized means." Hmm. OK. And, yes, my site is currently #10 if you run that Google search. Odd for a gay guy that can't get laid, huh?

So, if I'm ranked #10 for that search, what's #1? Well, it's this little site call www.truth-and-justice.info, and boy, is it anything but. This wacko has a page for those that don't know what sodomy is. OK, I can understand why someone, especially a non-native-English speaker like our friend here from Saudi Arabia might need a bit of help, and his page does do a pretty good job of defining the term and even giving a bit of background and legal history. But then it gets freaky: (emphasis mine)

The verb "sodomize" means to commit an act of sodomy, and more specifically to turn a man into a homosexual by inserting some objects into his anal passage. The reason that such action can "turn a man (or boy) into a homosexual" is that stroking the internal walls of the anal passage produces in the victim sensations similar to those experienced in the course of normal sexual relations by women. Once subjected to such act, a sodomized male becomes addicted to these sensations, and experiences cravings to repeat these experiences again. This also leads to a personality change, and such men begin to imitate female behavior and become "effeminate". [He never said what happens to the personalities of the tops...] Such men can also develop emotional dependence on their sodimistic partners and form with them a "long-term relationship".

So, of course at this point, I had to pick my jaw up off the floor, dust it off, and put it back on. The rest of this fuckwit's site is just as interesting. Like how animals can be forced into homosexual behavior by "unnatural" situations like domestication. Sounds like someone needs to read this book. But he's probably not interested in facts if they disagree with his dogma. I was extremely amused by his claim that a man having merely one wife will drive her to "drinking, smoking, or gambling."

I was raised pretty much a-religiously, and I'm basically an agnostic. I just have a hard time understanding the mentality of "I know what God really wants, and your religion is wrong. Now do what I say." This twit appears to be British, but we certainly have our share of religious know-it-alls as well (*cough* Fallwell *cough*), and they all share a similar mindset with this dork. They seem to be growing in power, or at least in volume, and I worry about what's going to happen if they gain more control than they already have.

Fuckwit

I mentioned this guy's blog in a previous post.

I've changed my mind. He might have some interesting political opinions, but he's an asshole.

They didn't realize it was actually for money, either

Celebrity Poker Challenge is a fun little show on Bravo, where actors and celebrities get together on camera and play poker for charity. They're usually B+ grade cebrities, but it's fun nonetheless. Each week, the winner from the original five players goes on to the finals, in which the winner of that round gets the biggest chunk of the "Cingular Wireless Prize Package," as host Dave Foley reminds us every episode.

That is, until now. Cingular has decided to pull its sponsorship of the Bravo show because there was (gasp!) drinking on the show, and the occasional (bleeped) swear word. Come on, this is a Las Vegas casino for crying out loud, not a nunnery. The drinking seems to be their biggest beef with the program. Geez. These people are adults taking part in a perfectly legal, respectable adult past time, one most American's do as well. It's even doctor-recommended! It's not like they were out getting trashed and falling all over the poker table slurring their words or anything.

The truly ironic part is that using Cingular's product while driving is even more dangerous than driving drunk.

[On a side note, I found it very interesting to find out that CPS is the creation of Joshua Malina, one of its executive producers and currently of the West Wing cast. That explains why West Wing cast members have been regulars on the series this season and last. Malina was also seen in Sports Night, which, if you ask me, was one of the best TV shows of all time. According to his IMDB biography, he is an avid poker player, even playing for rent while he was a starving actor.]

People that want to make me screech my nails on the blackboard...

I'm not the world's best typist, I know. I'm not even a master grammarian. (Although I do appreciate the occasional punctuation joke.) But I'm constantly amazed at the inability of many native-born speakers in this country to handle even some of the simplest aspects of the English language.

Case in point: there's one guy that comes into the local gay.com chatroom (a place in which I hang out far too often) that has a nautical-themed screen name. I'll refrain from naming names. Oh what the hell, he's SailorHere. Now, you'd think with a nickname like that he might know a little bit about sailing. Or even just read something about it. The thing that bugs me is that he's constantly greeting the room with, "AHOY MATTIES." It's even in his bio line.

I don't want to get snippy about the shouting or the lack of a comma because, well, that would be anal. This is a chatroom, after all, and the regular rules of formal language are a bit relaxed. OK, limper than an overcooked noodle. I'm willing to be tolerant of that and the more-than-occasional misspelling; this is conversation, not publication. But it's not a typo, it's always mispelled as "matties," never, not once, as "maties." It doesn't appear to be intentional, he just doesn't know how to spell it.

Is it really unreasonable of me to expect that someone should want to put up a public persona that makes them look like they have more than a fourth-grade education?

Another blog

This guy has a pretty good blog. David sent me the link. I'm not going to link to it over in the menu, since it doesn't seem to be updated too often. He's a bit on the brash side, but what do you expect for 23? I thought he had some good points to make on cable TV news, gay Republicans, and the whole dating thing.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/waltwhippy99/

The joys of motherhood

In waiting for the bus the other day, I noticed a woman waiting nearby pushing her kid in a stroller. The stroller had two cupholders built into the handle, and I was trying to decide if that was a clever idea, or too Yuppie-riffic for words, when I saw what the cup holder contained ... a Bartles and James wine cooler. This was at like three in the afternoon. Yeah, nothing says mother-and-child bonding like taking Junior out for a little fresh air and getting liquored up in the process.

Web usage statistics. Mmmm, tasty!

I get a kick out of watching the statistics for this blog. Seeing where everyone is from, what they were searching for when they came here, and what else they read once the get here. (All courtesy of statcounter.com, which does the neat little visitor counter on the right.)

• On June 24, I got a hit from someone in the US House of Representitives doing a search on "John Kerry and 'bad for the economy'". Damn Republicans. I feel soiled.

• Strangely enough, lately the hits have pretty much all been from searches on Vadim Dale, Outback Jack's real name. Go figure.

• And to the user from the Bronx who came here on July 5, looking for "nude pictures of Dash Mihok," please feel free to share the results of your quest.

Know your audience!

I caught a few minutes of this season's Big Brother before watching The Amazing Race last night. It's interesting to see how well the CBS executives know their audience. About a quarter of the Racers are middle-aged or up. Several of them are fairly overweight, and some are not what you would generally call attractive. On Big Brother, however, everyone is young and reasonably hot.

These are not unintentional decisions, I'm sure. People don't watch BB for the interesting conversations. (There aren't any. Lets just say that these people aren't chosen for their ability to talk.) They don't watch for the suspense. (There really isn't any, unless you count the fairly stupid and rather contrived contests for head of household and this week's food.) They don't watch for the exotic locales. (They're stuck in a house the size of my apartment, for crying out loud.)

No, people watch BB for T&A and P&D (pecs and dick). The producers ensure there's plenty of that by not air conditioning most of the house, plying them with lots of alcohol, and putting cameras in every inch of the house, including the shower. And with uncensored 24-7 feeds, it's basically CBS porn. In the interest of full disclosure, maybe I'm just bitter. I've always been unattractive, and now that I'm old and and fat, to boot, maybe it's just that I'm jealous of all these hotties people want to watch fuck.

Which brings me to the other reason people watch: to see who's gonna hook up. I think CBS made history last season by being the first major network to actually televise people having sex, although admittedly, it was only shown over the Internet feed.

The first big twist this season is that two of the contestants are half-brother and half-sister, and don't realize it. Fortunately, one of the two has figured it out, so we're spared the possibility of them hooking up. But that makes me wonder, what would happen if he had not figured it out, and they had hooked up? Would the camera crew stop them, and let the secret out? The cynic in me says no. After all, it would make *great* television.

One hell of a brave penguin

I can't remember where I found this, and I really wish I could. It cracks me up no end.

One brave penguin.

IE sux

According to their website, United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) is a partnership between the US Department of Homeland Security and the public and private sectors. This week they recommended people stop using Microsoft's Internet Explorer and switch to a different web browser.

I was surprised. Not because they were making this recommendation; with the security-hole-of-the-week in IE being particularly bad this time, it seemed only sensible. What surprised me was that people were still using IE when there are a number of superior choices out there. I use Mozilla Firefox, others prefer to use Opera, and there are any number more.

I just can't understand why people would use IE given the choice. I had to go to some news website becaue it used an IE-only ActiveX control the other day. The result? Popups all over the place. I didn't even realize that advertisers were still using pop-ups, since Mozilla blocks them all. Banner ads? Similarly gone. Mouse gestures? The best thing since sliced bread. And you don't have to worry about some stranger installing softward on your computer without your permission.

Switch. It's the best thing you can do for your blood pressure today.