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Website of the Week
Another great movie from the BBC.
Local Pump Price of Unleaded Gasoline:
$3.89/gallon
Price Per Barrel of Oil:
$136.04 (previously $125.96)
last modified Jul 8, 2008 at 22:33
I am currently reading Bill Gertz's Betrayal, a book about the disintegration of America's intelligence and military preparedness during the Clinton administration.
Four word commentary of what I've read so far: very, very, very scary.
What I have read so far deals with hostile actions and espionage incurred against the US by Russia. Also, while we are disarming our nuclear arsenal, Russia is jacking up its nuclear capabilities yet not insuring the stability and control of its current arsenal.
How can Russia moan and complain about the US plan to develop STAR WARS yet continue full-speed in bringing in the next generation of nuclear weaponry? Actually, I know why. When the Russians complain about this, they know that some Americans will be duped and will actually demand that the US not build up its missile defenses. Ridiculous.
Christian Weber of Soldiers for the Truth warns that there are two possible Al-Qaida attack scenarios that could unfold this month.
On October 2nd, the conviction anniversary of two of the first World Trade Center bombing terrorists, there is a NY Yankees game that could be a potential suicide bombing venue.
Also, on October 7th, the date that the US began attacks on the Taliban and al-Qaida forces in Afghanistan, there is a Monday Night Football game between the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers that could also be a potential terrorist target.
Weber's evidence is that the terrorists have chosen anniversary dates of important events such as the first and second WTC bombings and the embassy bombings.
For those of you who may have wondered where I've been the past week, well, I have spent the majority of it in a three-day management training seminar.
Although initially skeptical, I think that I have actually picked up some useful information and behavioral models for doing some things better as a member of management. The theme of the seminar was communication and covered subjects such as coaching, making effective presentations, detecting troubled employees, understanding financial statements, etc.
Anyway, before I bore you to death, I was really struck by how hand gestures and intimate eye contact really impact the effectiveness of a presentation. Intimate eye contact is looking at one individual for 3 to 5 seconds while talking, switching to another individual for 3 to 5 seconds, and so on.
Anyhoo, la te da. I'm back. Let the people rejoice.
The woman who got caught on tape beating her little four year old girl is supposedly a member of a mysterious group of scam artists called the Travellers...
Are you curious?
Well, who's it going to be?
Joe?...
or Steve?
Jon Barlow linked to a site that calculates your "life expectancy" based upon your lifestyle and environmental factors. Mine was 85 years old, but the site said that if I changed certain factors, I could live to be 97.
Big whoop. If, Lord willing, I live to be 85, I think that the additional 12 years to age 97 are not worth giving up my occasional delight in smoking a pipe or cigarette and drinking an ice-cold Heineken.
An interesting link off that page leads to some famous last words before dying. Such as
Andrew Jackson "Oh, do not cry. Be good children, and we shall all meet in Heaven."
and
John Kennedy "That's very obvious."
Here are some different kinds of last words:
"I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper." -- Gary Cooper, on his decision to not take the leading role in Gone With The Wind.
"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." -- Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.
and, how 'bout this gem...
"Everything that can be invented has been invented." -- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.
Okay, folks, now seriously. Which was the better science fiction tv show of the seventies and eighties...
V...
Battlestar Galactica...
Buck Rogers...
Voyagers... 
Greatest American Hero... 
For those of you who, when passing my house on a quiet Sunday afternoon or 5 o'clock in the morning, decide to goose the gas in your dual-exhaust glass pack-equipped V-8 Vortec z71 trucks or on your how-the-heck-can-you-ride-that-thing-and-sign-a-gas-receipt-legibly Harley-Davidson bikes:
Your time will come. Justice will bear me out and you will get a taste of what it's like to have just finally put all three of your little ones down for a nap and then for SOME reason they are awakened by SOME otherworldly loud rumble... Oh yes, you just wait.
How would you like it if your job description entailed flying into hurricanes in one of these...?
That's the life of a hurricane hunter. Those guys need to find a more interesting living. It's a wonder they don't die of boredom...
My question du jour is a serious one that my brothers and I discussed and were not quite sure about:
When you eat at Sonic, a fast food drive-in, are you supposed to tip the folks who bring out your food? If so, how much? If not, then why do I feel guilty when I don't? Doesn't guilt imply that it is at least customary to tip in this situation?
The full text of Bush's speech regarding the events of that day.
If you would like to read a perspective of 9/11 that will really get your blooding boiling, check this web article out.
I don't know if it is just me or if this is thought by most people, but I am emotionally drained by all the constant evocations of emotion that the media tries to evince by constant post-9/11 analysis of the impact of the terrorist strike on the American way of life and state of mind.
Truth be said, many of the people who have been interviewed by journalists and who are asked trite questions like "How has 9/11 changed your life?" and "What do you do differently now?", they seem to attempt to conjure up feelings of deep reflection and profound sadness. It's almost as if one is attending the funeral of a great-great aunt once-removed and tries to demonstrate their affection through feigned sadness and forced tears.
It seems to me that people in New York and Washington or who had family and friends in these areas definitely have a legitimate right to be affected, but Joe Schmoe in Podunkville, TX does not, at least not on the same level. Yet people do not want to be seen as cold and callous or worse, emotionally unfashionable, so they constantly prattle on about how things will "never be the same" and other banal tripe.
I watched some PBS special about how people felt about God after 9/11 and I wanted to puke. Priests, rabbis, you name it, talked about how they questioned the goodness of God after this terrible event. Folks, we only think we know hardship and calamities. There are much worse things that can happen to us than this. I wanted to reach through the television and shake them, saying: "Don't you realize that it is God's mercy that He does not allow us all to be utterly destroyed?!"
Neal Boortz, a libertarian talk-show host, explains why liberals cannot survive in the world of talk radio.
A newspaper columnist or editorial writer publishes their opinion piece and retreats. Ditto for other writers and most broadcast commentators. They put their thoughts and opinions out there for the general public to digest. When the great unwashed figure out that the editorial, column or commentary is intellectually inedible, the author is safely out of reach, insulated from any challenges to the factual or logical base of their stated opinions.
What makes talk radio different than print media:
A newspaper columnist or editorial writer publishes their opinion piece and retreats. Ditto for other writers and most broadcast commentators. They put their thoughts and opinions out there for the general public to digest. When the great unwashed figure out that the editorial, column or commentary is intellectually inedible, the author is safely out of reach, insulated from any challenges to the factual or logical base of their stated opinions.
A Penn State college paper has garnered some attention by "firing" Ann Coulter's column from their paper. In a scorching open letter to Miss Coulter, the editor rants
"[Y]ou are either a hater or a hypocrite who calls names and spews enmity because you believe it will get your pretty face on television more or sell more copies of your best-selling books."
and
"Ann, you're mean -- vicious, really -- which is why we do not believe that you in any way serve the public good."
What heinous thing, you might ask, has Ann Coulter done that has ruffled this noble editorialist eagle's feathers?
Well, I guess you can say that Ann was just Ann: up-front, honest with her opinion, and not willing to mince words in order to convey an image of "niceness".
In her column...
Ann refers to Ted Kennedy as "[t]he adulterous drunk who cheated at Harvard and killed a girl at Chappaquiddick..."
and of the Kennedy family says, "This is as we have come to expect from a family of heroin addicts, statutory rapists, convicted and unconvicted female-killers, cheaters, bootleggers and dissolute drunks known as 'Camelot.'"
Whether or not one thinks that Ann is unfair in her remarks, I think most adults do not need a college paper editor protecting us from the words and ideas of columnists we might disagree with: whether soft and sappy or rough and caustic. The libs have Molly Ivins and William Raspberry, conservatives have Ann Coulter and Jonah Goldberg.
Fair's fair.
William H. Macy and Laura Dern give stellar performances in the film adaptation of Arthur Miller's Focus, an ironic tale about an anti-Semitic WASP whose new glasses cause others to think that he is jewish. In a sense, his glasses cause him to see clearly the irrationality of anti-Semitism by causing others to see him as a Jew.
If this movie is accurate in its portrayal of WWII era America, then I am really amazed at the level of anti-Semitism that existed in our country. Does anyone who has seen the movie or who is familiar with the subject know if this is an accurate portrayal or if this is exaggerated?
One example from the movie is that in many of the classified ads, a common stipulation was Gentiles Only or Christians Only. Anyone?
As I listen to Aretha Franklin sing My Country Tis of Thee for the S.Williams vs. V.Williams match, my heart is happy for both Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, two of the all-time greats to ever play the game.
What a fantastic U.S. Open!
Does anyone remember this old SNL skit? Whenever I say, "I'm just a caveman, your world confuses me..." to people, they just look at me blankly as if I'm crazy. Of course, then I'm left sputtering, "Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer! Didn't you ever see the skit on Saturday Night Live? You know? Sheesh!"
I am officially (well, not really "officially") taking votes from blog readers as to who thinks that Bob should start his own blog.
Come on, Bob, you can't be a guerrilla blogger forever. You have to settle down with your own blog. Show us what you believe about life, what you fight for.
I for one, vote 'aye' in favor of the Bob Blog.
LSU squares off against the Citadel on Saturday and (gasp!) it is not airing on television.
A lot of times, a team's schedule tells you what kind of team you are. Here is the Citadel's schedule. Of course, one must ask, then why are WE playing the Citadel? hmmm
This is a funny page that I found while looking for a Garfield gif on the Internet. It is about yellow heroes for "yellow" people. For all those gasping at embarrassment at my political incorrectness, this is written by two Asian girls and is from an Asian campus magazine for Wellesley College. So lighten up, folks, and enjoy the colorful humor.
My Tigers took a tough beating this past Sunday, over there in Blacksburg, VA, losing 26-8. The offensive line looked completely confused by Virginia Tech's defense, the wide receivers seemed perplexed as to how to catch a ball, the running backs were generous with the football, and yellow markers littered the field as LSU muddled through the Labor Day weekend.
After much intense training and rabid practices this week, LSU will have the chance to vent its frustration on the hapless Citadel team this coming Saturday. Maybe this rough start will jog the LSU into a higher level of play this season. Here's to hoping.
On a different sports note, it is nice to see Pete Sampras winning a few over at the US Open. He has been given heck since his slump, but maybe this will give him the chance to come out of it.
My brothers James and Benjamin, my sister Esther, Kathleen, the little ones, and I went to visit the local Amish community near Pontotoc today. Someone had neglected to tell them that the day was Labor Day and that they were to cease from their labors. :^)
I have to admire the tenacious persistence of this group of people who hold on tightly to their old hard ways of life in the face of a world in which labor reducing technology is ubiquitous. It is sad that their theology is one of separatism (Anabaptistic) and prevents them from reaching out to influence the world for God's kingdom.
Matthew 25:34-46
34 Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
37 Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
40 The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
41 Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
44 They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
45 He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
46 Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.
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