I sent this New York Times article to my boss the other day.
Read more .. »

The Washington Post publishes a yearly contest in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for various words. The following were some of 2001’s winning entries:
Read more .. »

From my “brooder” in Bandera, Texas….

Taxes Explained

Let’s put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand.
Read more .. »

As seen here!

Go to this Live Journal site to grab the code for mouse-over buttons for your XML link. The code snippets are smaller than the graphics files and degrade nicely as a text link in non-CSS compliant browsers! You can see that in a side by side comparison with their graphical counterparts, there’s really no difference at all!
Read more .. »

Notice my last three posts were exactly 10 minutes apart. Hrm. This must be some kind of devilish, fiendish sign from the Netherworld. Let’s see. J is the 10th letter of the alphabet. My name starts with the letter J.

This really is starting to creep me out man!! (**screams in uncontrolled terror**)

Here’s some interesting trivia about the origins of Hallowe’en. Remember as you crash party after party, gorge on candy corn and trip all over your costume that part of the tradition of going door to door was started by the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Oops. I meant to say it was started by a traitor to the British throne, Guy Fawkes.

So have some of this and this…. And don’t stay out too late.

Check out this article about the “recall” from Target’s shelves of some offensive baseball caps and other gear. Some eagle eyed Target shopper (don’t make me go there) figured out (clever soul that he is) that the 88 depicted on the merchandise was actually a veiled reference to Hitler (88 equalling “Heil Hitler,” for those of you reading this who are not White Supremacists).

Good grief. My car is a 1988. Does this mean something? Well, besides the fact that I drive a 14-year old car. Does this mean we should now skip the 88th floor in office highrises like we do the 13th floor? Is this going to be added to the list of unlucky numbers? There are 88 keys on a piano too. Is it the ultimate instrument of evil?

And even though I’m no sports fan, I can bet that Marcus Robinson of the Chicago Bears ain’t too happy with this unfortunate set of circumstances either. Why, if I were him, I’d be wasting no time getting my jersey retired — better yet, burned. Burned at the stake. Burned on a cross. On Paul Tagliabue’s front lawn.

If any of this is true, we are all in for a rude awakening. In fact, we may even begin to believe we’ve woken up in another country. A country where you are punished for the company you keep, for what you look like and what you wear.

If that happens, if our rights are eroded in this fashion, then Bin Laden and every other terrorist out there will have won the battle. Why? Because we’ve turned over on our backs and let them.

There is no better way to combat terrorists like these, whose life mission is the wholesale oppression of people, than to boldly go about our daily lives, as the free and independent Americans that we are. Otherwise, the next sound you hear will be our own government going door to door looking for “those people who look like ‘them’” And then, the next sound you hear after that will be Hitler, giggling in his grave.

Okay, just so we can all be clear on this:

Kissing a pig (or any other animal): Not animal cruelty. Of course this ridiculous shit has to come from Texas. Sigh.

Doing this to a pig (or any other animal): Yes, definitely.

So, have you kissed your cat or dog today? (I kiss my cats on the top of their head only; I’ve seen where their lips have been!)

Read about the latest e-Bay scam and shake your head and wonder. It’s still true today: A fool and his money are soon parted. READ THE FINE PRINT, PEOPLE. And don’t expect e-Bay to bail you out. They constantly downplay the scope of fraud going on there. But it has to have gotten worse, especially since they (ostensibly in a move to “protect” their users — from what I don’t know) no longer allow unfettered contact between one user and another. You have to “ask seller a question” and his e-mail identity is protected; yours is not.

And of course, if you’re a buyer faced with a “non-performing seller,” you’re left twisting in the wind. Yet “non-performing bidders” (who used to be called the less-politically correct “deadbeat bidders”) were villified. Nothing has changed. And nothing probably will. The bottom line is unless you can afford to toss [insert bid amount here] out the window driving down the street, don’t bid!

And for heaven’s sake do your homework. Why pay $119 for a flatbed scanner on e-Bay that you can find at Best Buy for $89. (Do you really think that kind of thing doesn’t happen?)

Look at the seller’s feedback. If he’s developed a pattern of scamming or for whatever reason appears to be “circling the drain,” don’t bid! If you ask him a question and he doesn’t reply, don’t bid!

Because I’ve found out one thing on e-Bay: Even if it’s a hard to find item, don’t despair. Another one (or even that same one!) will be along in another month or two. Just sit tight and don’t be so eager to snap up the item that you lose all sense of reason. And this (it goes without saying, but apparently, judging from the article, I still need to say it again!): IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT PROBABLY IS.