Linklist maintenance.

Performed some long overdue maintenance of the left column.  Created a new category called "Formerly Front Line," and moved the appropriate peeps there from the "From the Front" category.  As time goes on and the war becomes less present in everyday consciousness, they'll be moved from that new category into humor, opinion, or whatever.

Removed a few links I just lost interest in.  Ordinarily I won't name names, but one I got really sick of was they guy who wrote "turning tables."  He was an army comm guy posted in one of Saddam's palaces in Baghdad.  All he ever did was piss and moan and complain about how bad America was treating Iraq, but more importantly, his own personal misery.  Hey, every serviceman bellyaches at some time or another.  TO EACH OTHER.  To fish for pity over the internet...  I am supposed to feel bad that this pissant volunteered for the military and had to... *gasp*... do what the military does?  I'm supposed to think he didn't get exactly what he wanted?  And don't give me that, "Well, most people just join so they can go to college" bullshit.  That changes nothing, and makes you look stupid.  In the Marines we had a saying, "Nobody promised you a rose garden."  And by Jove, I just looked at my contract, and I was not, in fact, promised a rose garden.  I think I'll cry about it to global media (*cough* 4th Infantry Division *cough*) and the internet.

He used to have comment system on his page.  I'd read comments from his readers after each article, and see all kinds of idiots stroking his sore pussy for him.  One day I'd had enough of it, and mentioned that nobody wants to have pity parties for volunteers, and he should just suck it up and work on improving his attitude.  I noticed a few people posting after me shared my thoughts on the matter.  Two days later I went back... poor baby had to disable his comment system, because all of a sudden people got tired of listening to his shit.  Gordo shut down his comment system.

That's enough about him.

++++

Acidman at Gut Rumbles was kind enough to offer me a couch if I wanted to catch the "Blog Meet" down in his neck of the woods, northern Georgia, on November 1st.  I like reading his page... he's an ornery old cuss, country boy, and talks about his "medical issues" in a way I never could.  His "bionic dick" is damned-near a contributor on his page.

But November 1st... in October I'm road tripping to Raleigh to catch the next Matrix Movie with some forum peeps, and in December I'm spending a week in Memphis to catch some bbq, Return of the King, and bbq.  Don't EVEN ask, "Bbq'd what?"  Yankee.  My trip planner is pretty busy between now and the end of the year.  But I'll try to fit Georgia in.

++++

Holy crap, I just opened email.  Downloaded my spamemail, and my antivirus popped up saying one of them contained the Klez virus.  I took a closer look to see who sent it to me... I didn't recognize the email addy.  But here's the contents of the email:

The dick sent me a "fake" virus to get my attention for his "immunity tool."  He angers me.  I wonder if it's really fake.

++++

And hey, how bout that Do-Not-Call list.  Back and forth, back and forth.  What really sucks is the list is, obviously, completely available to telemarketers.  The figure being bandied about is 50MM phone numbers have been submitted to it... phone numbers, cell phone numbers, unlisted phone numbers, etc.  If the list never goes into effect, the government has just let telemarketers know everyone cell phone and unlisted landline numbers.  

Smoking bans, and personal freedom.

When I was in Toledo, Ohio a few weeks ago, I was privileged to witness the first day of a public city-wide smoking ban.  Passed by the mayor and city council, it prohibited smoking in all public buildings, including bars and restaurants.  As I understand it, not even "smoking bars" were allowed... the only way for a business to legally allow people to smoke in their establishments was to literally build a hyperbaric chamber for them.  And they were starting the construction of one in a TGI Fridays in which I had lunch, one day.

The issue was all over the local news.  One business owner said, on camera, "I have a sign up claiming I have the right to refuse service to anyone.  As of now, neither the mayor nor any member of city council are welcome in my establishment."  I was even surprised to catch former mayor Carty Finkbeiner in the middle of an editorial, one day... to my surprise he was speaking out against the smoking ban.  It was the first time I'd ever heard him say anything that wasn't stupid... but then he continued, and his position was that the smoking ban should be extended county-wide to keep smokers from hitting the suburbs to eat, drink, and smoke.  Yep, Carty's still a dick.

The other day I was IM'ing with a television media employee, and this subject came up.  He said, "Some big stuff going on around the country about smoking bans. It turns out that businesses in areas outside of Cali are hurting and not seeing an increase in business like they were told they would.

This is a big deal in NY right now where businesses are claiming to be down 30-40%. Toledo city council had a meeting tonight and several members are now backing down from their vote for the smoking ban. Turns out all the suburbs are mocking them because they're stealing all the business now.

Plus, tons of business owners were at the meeting and PISSED. Bowling leagues alone have already lost tens of thousands of dollars. In NY, most are complaining that those against smoking in public are people who don't want to go out. In Cali, people are trapped and have to obey the law, where else can they go?

On top of that, now people are paying "smoking fines" at bars. You walk in and stuff money into a jar. Then everyone smokes and if the place is caught, the money in the jar pays the fine."

I found that funny.

That got me thinking somewhat tangentially.  People in New York City and Los Angeles consider themselves pretty cool, and rarely hesitate to make fun of states like Michigan and Idaho that have high "militia" populations.  Places like Idaho and any state south of Cincinnati is regularly lampooned in popular culture, which usually originates in one of the two aforementioned cities.  But the truth is, while I think the typical armed militia-type is overly paranoid, the truth is that these people are big on personal freedoms, unlike NY and LA.  So consider that next time you think the sun rises and sets on the east and west coasts.

No, wait....

Duty.

Survived the bitch Isabel, thanks for asking.  Yard is trashed with the neighbors' pine tree boughs, and DTManor lost a few shingles, but all in all it's all good (Most 'alls' in a sentence, evar).  All the pine tree detritus is nothing the 6 horsepower mulching lawn mover can't handle.

What's extra funny is that I live where she made land fall, and yet I didn't lose power.  Clock radio wasn't flashing.  People hundreds of miles away lost power for hours and days.  Owned.  Props to Jones-Onslow Electricity Cooperative; I saw them staging work crews all over town six hours before the wind started blowing.  *cabbage patching*

And, the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers said, "pshaw" to the order that they could abandon their post and take shelter from the hurricane.  They said, "Damn that."  Good stuff.

I can hear the idiots now..."They're stupid.  It's not like the tomb or corpses are going to go anywhere... live people were at risk from the storm."  These are the people who have no concept of duty, honor, or sacrifice.  I could begin to explain my reasoning, but the people who don't get it will continue not getting it, and the people who do don't need it explained.

Hurricane Warning 2003-1.

Evacuation order in effect.

100+ mph winds expected.

Neighbors have lots of big pine trees that will hit my house if the fall in the right direction.

I'll be back online Friday, assuming DTMan HQ weathers the storm.

Funniest sign on a boarded up window evar: on a furniture store window, in big letters on the plywood it said, "Fizzle Izzle!"   

Hurricane Watch 2003-1.

Oh, joy.

High Net Marauders.

By now most everyone has heard of the 12 year old girl sued by the RIAA, so I wont get into that.

She was "caught" because she was using Kazaa, and her computer was set to share her music folder with other Kazaa users.  The RIAA monitors Kazaa, and has the ability to glean the user's computer's internet address.  At that point they subpoena the user's internet service provider, and if they cave, which they usually do, the computer user's name and home address is given to the RIAA for a lawsuit.  To date, over 1500 Kazaa users have been targeted by the RIAA.

To date, since Napster has ceased to exist, only Kazaa users who share their music (and then only those who shared 1000+ tunes) have been targeted.  The RIAA is not able to target the following file sharing networks, as they make privacy a higher priority:

BLOCKS - "Blocks is an anonymous distributed file transfer system designed for people with permanent 'always on' Internet connections like DSL lines or cable modems. It allows you to anonymously upload files from, and download files to the Blocks server 'network'. Blocks is cross-platform, open-source and free."

WASTE - "WASTE is a software product and protocol that enables secure distributed communication for small (on the order of 10-50 nodes) trusted groups of users."

And of course, the designed purpose of this application is "designed to enable small companies and small teams within larger companies to easily communicate and collaborate in a secure and efficient fashion, independent of physical network topology."

:-)

ELF - "ELF is a software program that can be used to share and receive files across a network anonymously in order to allow the storage and sharing of information without fear of reprisal.  For those with a little more technical knowledge, ELF largely functions as a series of peer-hosted proxy servers that route data through an encrypted network."

Freenet - "Freenet is free software which lets you publish and obtain information on the Internet without fear of censorship. To achieve this freedom, the network is entirely decentralized and publishers and consumers of information are anonymous. Without anonymity there can never be true freedom of speech, and without decentralization the network will be vulnerable to attack."

Those programs make it harder for the RIAA to  snoop your files and internet traffic, so make sure you or your child aren't using them.

Another app out there you don't want to use is PeerGuardian.  Each time you launch PeerGuardian, it downloads the latest list of known RIAA informants and blocks them from connecting to your computer. The list contains hundreds of known IP-address ranges the RIAA has used to catch file swappers.  You can still be caught if a new spy looks at you, but it's better than nothing.

So, you shouldn't use any of the above programs.  If you aren't doing anything wrong then you have nothing to hide, and shouldn't mind being snooped.  If you are downloading music, you belong in Federal Pound-Me-in-the-Ass prison.

You can never go home again.

But you can still visit.

Just spent a couple weeks in the Great White North visiting the fam and friends.

Leisher was going to pick up the slack here while I was gone, but it turns out he already had scheduled a retreat for pre-op transsexuals.  Everyone wish Leisher luck with his upcoming operation.

But yes, I visited the family, new additions and all (a new niece, and a new nephew).  God knows I love them all...which is why I live a 12-hour drive away... but it sure is nice to be home.  It's getting cold up there... one night it got down to 59 degrees... and it's only September!  Screw that.  I hereby renounce all of my northern heritage.  Time to get the Confederate Battle Flag painted onto my car hood.  Yee ha.

I've done relatively zero web surfing while away, and just as much following of news.  What's going on in the world?

The Great Blackout of '03.

Yeah, everybody knows a lot of the Northeast and Midwest is dark.  MSNBC.com is down, as is the listing page for my local chain movie theatre.  CNN.com, however, is up.  In reading their "Developing Story" link, I saw this bit:

Now, either they know what caused it, or they don't.  And if they don't, how can they say that without question, it isn't some terrorist asshole that did it?

It seems like nobody knows.

Hell, it could even have been a hacker.  Maybe this was the Blaster Worm's real payload...

Dirty dirty whore.

Meandering through the Super Wal-Mart today.... before you ask, I was tricked into going.

The wife wanted to buy a frame for the new picture of the new nephew.

Woman:  I can't believe what a limited selection of frames they have.  I mean, the picture is standard 5x7, and I can't believe they only have one 5x7 frame here to choose from.  This is a common picture size, I can't believe they don't think they need more.  I guess Wal-Mart is just going to lose the money I would have paid for a frame.  I guess Target will get my money today.  What do you think?

Me:  I think that in some alternate universe, this is interesting.

W00+.

When I first moved back here to coastal North Carolina, I told someone that my goal was to somehow, some way get access to the near by base.

Follow your dreams.

Now that's some tasty spin.

I've not a lot of opinion over Davis being recalled out in California, because it isn't my home state.  I do like, however, the idea that if you are a screw-up as gov'nuh, there are consequences. 

It appears that in spite of the pro-recall folks getting the required petition signatures, Mr. Davis is trying to lawyer his way out of it, as evidenced by these two identical stories, with two different headlines:

Davis asks court to delay recall

and

Davis sues in bid to delay recall vote

At the least (I didn't finish either article), the first few paragraphs of the stories are the same.  I was just amused at the bias of the different headlines...one sounds so shitty, and the other sounds so friendly.

"Defeat the Right in Three Minutes."

Found an article this morning and bookmarked it, and now that I'm posting about it, I can't remember where I found it.  Props to whomever.

Unlike your typical "leftie" oriented page, this page seems somewhat organized, and unfortunately it looks like some thought went into it.  I say "unfortunately" because, as usual, all the arguments are based on emotion rather than logic, studies, or evidence.

In a very clear, organized fashion this article explains how so-called "conservatives" are actually "cheap-labor conservatives," who want nothing more than to keep the working poor broken and under their heel, so they are forced to work for cheaper wages.  Ignoring the fact that if they keep everyone broke, nobody can buy their product or service...but that point is never addressed.  Several points are made and presented as "proof," but it all comes down to "Republicans are The Man and keep you down."

Here's a couple snippets, in no particular order:

Emotion over logic.  "Corporations are mean and authoritarian and I hated my Dad so every authoritarian is deliberately keeping me poor, not my liberal arts degree."

But, in order to further the cause of all good conservatives, DTMan has presented its own page to help rally the troops to the side of reason and logic:

How to Defeat the Left in Three Seconds.

Timidity and the Lawsuit Nation.

If there's one thing for which America is rightly ridiculed in faraway lands, it's the pervasiveness of frivolous lawsuits.  The internet is a global culture, and not a week passes that I don't see a Brit or a Canook or an Aussie chuckling at the umbrella of litigation all Americans live under.  I always wish I could argue with them, but instead I have to chuckle along and say, "Heh, yeah, it sucks."

"An incompetent attorney can delay a trial for months or years. A competent attorney can delay one even longer."

Let me preface the following rant by saying NOT ALL LAWYERS ARE SCUM.  Most of them are, which even lawyers would agree to, but some aren't.  That being said, what kind of educated asshole decides to sue McDonalds because they sell hot coffee?  Who thinks up "being overweight is someone else's fault?"  And there are a thousand other examples.  Since being a lawyer requires you be educated, there's only one answer:  these people are evil, maliciously greedy, or just without a soul...or any combination thereof.  But I'm not saying anything y'all didn't know, am I.

A. Lawyers don't think they're funny and other people don't think they're jokes.

Which brings me to my point - how America is being changed by lawsuits, and there growing culture of fear that's developing.

-- Benjamin Franklin

When I was wee, our local grammar school had a playground full of big, metal, dangerous delights.  Huge 20' high swing sets, giant domes of connected metal pipes 8' high, free-range teeter totters.  Metal slides that blistered the skin off your legs in the late spring.  With no seat belts.

-- Charles Dickens

One winter in approximately the 5th grade, we had a fairly nasty snow storm, which was then a common occurrence in Ohio near Lake Erie.  Though the entire playground was buried in 3 feet of snow (drifted in places 6' and higher), they still let our four foot tall selves out to play at the designated recess times (twice a day, 45 minutes and 20 minutes, respectively.  Apparently people knew long ago that to eliminate symptoms of ADD, you had to run the excess energy out of kids, occasionally.  Lost knowledge.).  Snow was too deep to play tag, one of our fave games.  Ditto kickball.  Swings were snowbound.  Or were they?

-- Senator Sam Ervin

Me and my buddies each grabbed a swing, and began kicking out a trench that would allow us to...swing.  And swing we did...enjoying the rush of the "snow walls" on either side of us at the trough of our manic 160 degree arc.  Swinging so high that at the top of our arc, the chains slackened in a momentary rush of freefall.

A quote attributed to Founding Father John Adams in the play “1776”: “I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace, two men are called a law firm, and three or more become a Congress.”

I forget which of us did it first, but it was done.  One of us jumped off the swing at the top of the forward pendulum swing, arced gracefully through the air, and landed flat on his back, spread eagle in the newly packed snow.  He came up laughing.  We all laughed because it looked like Wile E. Coyote had fallen off the cliff and had been driven into the ground on impact, leaving a Wile E. Coyote shaped hole.  

“How’s it going?” he was asked.

“Not too bad,” he replied. “I still have my lantern.”

It took about 5 seconds for 5 boys to become airborne, making our own 10-year-old-in-winter-clothes-shaped holes.  Over and over we did this, the snow getting more and more packed with each tumble...and tumbling it became.  One of us was daring enough to begin somersaulting before impact, so then we all were.  It is one of a handful of memories I have from that age, and it's a cherished one.  The playground monitors (a couple female teachers) watched us astounded for about ten minutes, then decided we were all psychotic and made us stop.  But we had our moment of flight, grown-ups be damned.  Fortunately, nobody had told us yet how fragile we were, and doing such things would break our bones, hospitalize us, or kill us.  As such, we were immortal, then.... those boys still live, unchanged in the eternal playground of memory.  They mock the world of today, and just keep being boys.

The times, they are a'changing.

And the timid parents are part of this culture of fear.  When my main mode of transportation was a bicycle, a kid would get his ass kicked for wearing a helmet and pads.  And we did things on those bicycles they were never designed for... the 4' high high-speed ramp, and riding on the split rail fence at the ball field come to mind.  My Mom reads this page, so I won't even discuss what we did with metal rails and train bridges.  Again, nobody had told us these things were impossible, so we just did it.  Nowadays, children with helmets and pads are the rule, rather than the exception, if they are allowed out in public at all (too much danger of abduction, of course).  Children are ingrained with the fear of the own fragility at an early age.  No more daring, no more laughing at and coming to an agreement with gravity, no more impossible acrobatic freefall off the snowbound swing set.

Imagine what they're going to do to their kids.

What is a lawyer?  An individual whose principal role is to protect his clients from others of his profession.

The Common Man.

I've been contemplating this post for a couple weeks, and it is going to be difficult to make my point clearly, but here goes:

I think too often the internet community, and the intelligentsia as a whole, makes fun of the uneducated.  Looking back I think I may have been guilty of it too, on occasion.  We on this website often poke fun at the ignorant, when they do ignorant things.  We discuss stupid decisions, stupid laws, stupid policies.  Well, I recently had a revelation about this:

Often it is those who have an education causing the most damage.

Of course we lampoon the fine guests on Jerry Springer talking about their baby-momma and they don't need to finish high school and you don't know me!  But in the end, who else do they hurt but themselves and those around them?  No, I'm talking today about the school administrator with the Masters Degree who thinks it's a good idea to expel the high school valedictorian because she had a butter knife in her car.  The corporate executives with MBAs and lobbyists pushing for laws giving private entities the right of search and seizure.  The people with law degrees removing any sense of personal responsibility from the national psyche by suing McDonalds because some lazy kids developed fat asses.  Elected city officials segregating students for the sole reason of separating those who are different from each other.

Being a news junkie, I read about crap like this every day, and it begins to weigh on a person.  It seems the country goes to hell a little more every day, and that there's no hope.  Strutting sound and fury for my brief time on the stage ultimately ends up signifying nothing.  There's no respite, no reprieve.

It didn't help when I was exposed to this article, talking about "re-education" occurring in American campuses.

It's difficult to just post a portion of that article and get the full impact.  It discusses organized classes teaching students "of color" that the reason they are losers is because white people are evil.  It makes a white man who has put himself in harm's way for the principles his country stands for pretty pissed off.  People mentioned in the above article do not see others as individuals, but as groups being oppressed in one way or another.  Except for the white men who keep every other group down, of course.  I am guilty because I'm white.  Period.  No exceptions.  End of story.

I've argued in the past that Muslim schools, madrassas, are particularly scary because they directly influence impressionable children that Jews actually do grind up Muslim babies to bake into their bread, among other things.  I see the same thing happening in the warped womb of college campuses.  Protected from reality, school faculty are free to heap any deranged personal psychotic politic they wish on their students, and punish them with attitude adjustment for any dissent.

So there's no hope, right?

That's when I remembered that not all people go to college.  Then I remembered that America's Constitution was designed to protect the common man from any who would attempt to suppress him.  After a while, I realized that in my life as a computer programmer and professional webpage whiner, I really didn't make a lot of difference in the world...but the guy who drove the semi to my company's loading dock did.  The farmer in Iowa putting in his first crop of the year did.  The contractor in Ohio building houses did something tangible every day.  Every day they made a noticeable difference in the world.  It was simple for them to look back at the end of the day and see what was accomplished.  They could care less that some college was warping the minds of some spoiled kid from a rich family, it had absolutely no bearing on their life.  What did that have to do with the need for some rain for those crops?  They are completely oblivious to the plight of P2P users and their fight with the RIAA.  How is that relevant to their task to drive 1500 miles in the next 48 hours?  They could give a good goddamn about some poor parent's inability to make their children leave the video games alone and go outside to exercise.  It makes no difference to the guy with a roof to shingle and a wife to keep happy.

I think the conclusion to be made is that having an education doesn't make one smart, and not having gone to college doesn't make one stupid.

And I think there's more of these men not concerned with trivial nonsense than there are college kids getting their degrees in basket weaving and being pigeonholed into "oppressor/victim" roles.

In a nutshell, I don't think 15 million backwoods southerners give a shit about the growing problem of email spam.

I think the foundation of the country will remain solid.

Dear RIAA.

I went music shopping today.

I hadn't gone in awhile, and there was a backlog of CDs I wanted to get.  I didn't know much about any of them, because no radio stations play the kind of music I like, and web radio seems to have disappeared.  But, I liked the previous releases from the artists, so I trusted their new releases to be good, too...except for one.

I've been a Queensryche fan since the early 90's.  Loved everything they created up through "Promised Land..." but then they pretty much went to shit; rumor has it their record label wanted them to make their music more "pop."  I still bought the two albums after Promised Land without hearing the contents, and ended up getting screwed.  They sucked.

A few days ago I saw the Ryche had yet another new album out called "Tribes... " and I was tempted.  I always have hope that a band in this situation will find their lost talent and release something again inspiring, but I was still sore from getting burned the last two times.

I went looking for samples of the album on the internet.  I've never used P2P services, so I tried the usual places like the band's website, and the limited selection of poor quality samples on amazon.com.  Long story short, I wasn't able to sample the music.

So I'm not buying this album.

Keep blaming piracy for your slumping sales.

Rampant piracy is destroying the world.

Civilization is collapsing, and it's completely due to file sharing.

I mean, from slumps in music and movie sales to books, the only answer is P2P services like Napster and Kazaa, right?

You can not trust the evening news.

Almost every day, I am exposed to the opinions of people whose entire field of knowledge from the last five years was fed to them intravenously from the front of their television screen.

Or, even worse, their college professors.

Every day I hear someone tell me how we shouldn't be in Iraq.  We (army guys) are getting our asses kicked every day.  We're only there to steal their oil.  The Iraqis don't want us there.  We're there illegally, and George Bush is a criminal and needs to be impeached.  We ignored the United Nations and acted unilaterally in our own interests in order to make Texas oil companies richer.  George Bush is a puppet of Zionists.  George Bush is a puppet of oil cronies.  George Bush is a puppet for Dick Cheney.  There's no link between Iraq and terrorism.  There's no link between Saudi Arabia and terrorism.  There was no link between Bin Laden and the rightful government of Afghanistan.  France and Germany are truly good nations and opposed to the war for the only reason that all good people are opposed to war.  George Bush is an ignorant cowboy, which is the only reason he invaded Iraq, in addition to having small-penis syndrome.

When I ask where they get their facts, the answer is always either "they don't remember (but everybody knows)," the evening news, or someone "knowledgeable" told them about it, usually someone connected with a university.  To break it down, people form their perception of reality based on what someone else far removed from the situation is telling them, and consider it engraved in stone.  Their minds open just long enough to absorb the byte of sound they're being fed, and close again greedily, holding on to it as gospel conveyed to them personally from a burning bush.

And I see it myself when I watch mass televised "news." If you know to look for it, it's easy to see when "unbiased" reporter interjects their own slant on something they're reporting as news.  The reporters think we need to know what, when, where, and isn't it horrible W made that decision?

In my opinion, it's fine to watch the news as long as you take everything as "Dan Rather said," and not "God stated a fact on network tv."  I realize many of you worship your televisions and will now brand me a heretic, but that's just the way it has to be.  Take your nuggets of information, but don't file them away alongside "sky is blue" and "grass is green."  Slip it in there with, "I heard that new Eminem movie sucked" and "Janice in the office just told me the new girl is stuck-up."  Listen to other peoples' opinions as information not verified, and not engraved-in-granite fact.  Because know what?  Most people are full of shit, and regurgitating someone else's shit just means you're full of shit, too, except that you aren't even bright enough to formulate your own shit.  You need someone else to help you produce shit.

And that's just pitiful.

Here's how to avoid an embarrassing misstep:  "I can't verify this as fact, but Dan Rather said on the news last night that American soldiers were caught by peace-loving French protestors eating the babies of Iraqi war widows.  The soldiers were quoted as saying, 'They taste good with Tabasco-brand hot sauce, yippy ki-yay.'"  This way, if on the off chance you're just spewing someone else's agenda, it won't turn out that you were repeating a bogus fact, just passing on someone else's opinion as an opinion.

It's hard to watch CNN for 2 hours without hearing at least one "reporter" with nice hair talking about all the trouble in Baghdad, and how the general Iraqi public resents the presence of American troops.  Yet, when you read the online diaries of troops actually in the area and/or on the front line, they talk about the general Iraqi public being happy for the American presence, and their observations of the on-scene news reporters is that they always look for the isolated trouble-spot so they can get their news clip of "look how bad it is here, and see me selflessly ignoring danger to report The Truth to you? (And W stole the election)."  These reports see their job as not to report reality, because being pro-America is not currently fashionable.  Their job is to show the sensational.  To show the Anti-America Event that starts and stops with the presence of cameras.  Focusing on an Iraqi family no longer under the threat of death from Saddam's regime just doesn't sell newspapers.  Showing kids being released from political prison is cool for about 15 seconds, but then they just start playing and stuff.  Boring.  And corpses from mass graves just kind of lay there.  Yawn.  But 15 guys burning George Bush in effigy...that's exciting.

I haven't seen one account of an American military man saying the general mood anywhere in Iraq today is anything but friendly toward American troops, Baath Party holdouts not withstanding.

The "From the Front" section of links in the left column is a good start to getting information from the front lines that aren't rewarded for being dishonest.  Lots of personal observations, not spiced up in any way.  Nobody there is trying to get the network world news desk.  Don't take what they say as fact.  Take it as a contrarian's view from someone actually in harm's way, without the ulterior agenda.

And almost none of them wear hair spray.

"Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"

New show on tv and stuff.

There was just a commercial on NBC saying it would be airing "in a few minutes." Then the tv station showed a notice for 8 seconds saying they don't consider that show appropriate for "family viewing time," so they're not showing it until 1:35 a.m.  It looks like they'll be showing a "Will and Grace" rerun instead.  Showing...ummm...a bunch of gay people during family viewing time?

Because parents can't make their young children not watch it, adults are now being denied things not meant for children.

If you want to let NBC corporate know how asinine the local NBC affiliate in Greenville, NC is, write here.

If you want to talk directly to the buttheads themselves, click here.

"Bush lied!"

I've been wanting to address the moronic "Bush lied!" crowd clinging to the hope that President Bush has been caught in a lie to rival perjury to a Grand Jury, but I've both been taking time to formulate my thoughts, and lazy.

So, as usual, Mr. Den Beste did it bigger, better, and faster than anything I could have done.

It's a long post, but he discusses the reasons what we've done why we've done it in a thorough, detailed outline.

Unfortunately, those who hate Bush can't see beyond their their "Bring honesty and integrity back to the White House/Clinton in 2004" protest posters, so they won't read this article, or listen to anyone who does.  The standard response to being confronted with logic is, "Nuh uh, my 'White Men are Evil 301' professor said that's a lie."

I've posted the entire article in the feedback thread, but it's much easier to read in the original.

There's indenting and such.

Wanted: A Mate.

I just decided I need a new mate.

I have lots of acquaintances, some buddies, and a few good friends.... but nobody I could call a "mate."  Because none of them are English.

Yes, I have decided to go into the market for an English friend.  Someone who can crack me up by telling a dirty joke in that awesome accent, using the word "bollucks" and "bugger."  It would make me look really classy to hang out with a guy like that.

I have a good history with British blokes.  I hung out with one on and off for a few days at a programmer convention in Boston back in '98.  He had the accent, and was just good looking enough to get the ladies.  He thought it was cool that I recognized it when he casually threw out the name of a Druid holiday.  I have nothing but respect for my British brothers (No grudges from the Revolutionary War here!), and I think they appreciate it.  He used to joke around with me, "I'm not English, you wanker.  I'm Welsh.  Now piss off."  What a cut-up.

And the world loves an American/British buddy duo, too.  It just makes you smile to see a brash American cowboy getting along with a proper English gentleman.  During a quiet moment, maybe he can help me realize I don't always have to "shoot first/ask questions later," and I can help him realize that it's ok sometimes to throw "proper" to the winds, and just cut loose.

I thought the first Austin Powers movie was hilarious.

And oh man, don't get me started on Tea Time.  I love iced tea!  It's got to be sweet, though.  I can drink it every meal of the day.  I can just see the look on my American peers' faces when in the middle of a meeting I suddenly look at my watch and saw, "Oops, it's time for tea," and excuse myself.  That would be so cool.

So, if you are or you know an English guy, contact me.  I'm not a psycho, or anything like that.

DTMan Politically Incorrect Products.

The DTMan store is now online.

Here. 

New items are coming frequently, but the feedback on existing merchandise has been excellent.  The meager profits of each item will help defray dtman.com server costs.  I like this method of gathering money better than the "tip jar" idea.

A lot of the items are rude and crude.  They will frighten and disturb those who would force you to be politically correct, and make you watch what you say.

And that's the point.

It's our God given right to be assholes, and when possible point out the stupidity in others.

I know for a fact Thomas Jefferson would love this store.

You can make comments and suggestions for changes to existing items in the feedback thread.

The search for FCK's (a.k.a. WMD's).

I like this answer.

Best educational tool: a good piece of hickory over the head.

Introducing the new DTMan.com line of educational apparel.  Let your clothes say what society won't let you.

If I get 6 or more people wanting to buy one, I'll make an order.