That was harsh...

Do you ever listen to a song thinking you know what the lyrics are only to find out later that you were WAY off?

The Rob Thomas song "Lonely No More" is about how he wants a solid relationship and wants to find his soulmate. There's a line in it, "Open up to me, like you do your girlfriends".

For months, I thought Rob was very harsh and demanding. I thought the line was "Open up to me, or I can do your girlfriends".

Dubai Ports...

This one really has me scratching my head. Why would Bush come out so strongly on the side of Dubai Ports World? This Middle Eastern company is purchasing P&O, out of London. This would give them control of our some of this country's most critical ports. Bush is threatening to veto any vote that would prevent this.

He claims that this company and the tiny country they hail from have always been friendly to the US. That very well may be so, but in this day and age when Grandma Jones can be searched at the airport because you "never can be too careful", something smells with this scenario. We've been warned repeatedly that those wishing to do us harm are not part of organized politics (for the most part), that they are religious offshoots. Moles can and are living amongst us, working amongst us. We are supposed to be ever vigilant.

Do I doubt that this company is supportive? Do I doubt that their country is supportive? No. That doesn't mean that individuals within that organization may not be against us. This is inviting trouble. Do we not have any companies in the business of port management?

There has to be much more than we, as the public, and possibly the Congress is being allowed to know. There has to be something we are gaining, besides good will, to have this make sense.

Bumble...I mean Gumbel

Bryant Gumbel is shooting his annoying mouth off again. This time it is to insult the winter Olympics. Asswipe says, "So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world's greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention." He says he has concluded that they are not real sports.

So because blacks don't choose to participate then obviously those are not sports. Makes sense to me. It doesn't matter that the athletes are world class WINTER sports athletes. They aren't black, therefore cannot be counted among the world's greatest athletes.

He implies that there is some big conspiracy to keep blacks out. What is it the lottery says? "You can't win if you don't play."

It's too bad that this pseudo journalist shot his mouth off the same year that Shani Davis won the gold in speed skating. Shhh - he's black. He's not a real athlete though. Don't tell him.

Curious that Gumbel managed to say something so divisive wrapped in the claim that the Winter Olympics are nothing more than a marketing ploy. Hmmm...who's raking in the publicity?

Ready for spring...

I'm not complaining. This has been one of the mildest winters ever. There hasn't been a lot of snow. The really cold days have been few. I'm just ready for spring.

I was out on geocaching.com checking out some more caches in the area. Between looking forward to caching and golf and gardening, I'm getting revved up for warm weather!

Have a good Monday!

Snow day...

I'm working from home today due to snow and ice. For me, it's the ice. Snow doesn't bother me - even deep snow. Ice, however, is a different animal.

When I first woke up we were getting thundersleet (at least that is what the weatherman called it). It was like a very heavy thunderstorm except it was sleet instead of rain. It was crazy.

It's nice that I can VPN into the company network and in fact, the systems guys are setting me up with a new connection right now. We have had the Cisco VPN in place for a couple of years, but we are now migrating to Firepass. People that have tested it really like it, so I'm anxious to see what it is like.

No more Ram Jam...

The University of New Hampshire has banned the Ram Jam cover of Black Betty from their hockey games. It has been a tradition to play the song during

The school said the ban was due to complaints about the song that were received by the NAACP claiming the song is "theoretically racist". They apparently protested back in 1977 as well. Meet the original Black Betty artist, Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter.

The NAACP is now calling one of their own theoretically racist. Hmmm. Here are the lyrics:

Whoa, black betty (bam-ba-lam)
Whoa, black betty (bam-ba-lam)
Black betty had a child (Ram Jam)
The damn thing gone wild (bam-ba-lam)
She said, "i'm worryin' outta mind" (bam-ba-lam)
The damn thing gone blind (bam-ba-lam)
I said oh, black betty (bam-ba-lam)
Whoa, black betty (bam-ba-lam)

Oh, black betty bam-ba-lam
Whoa, black betty bam-ba-lam
She really gets me high bam-ba-lam
You know that's no lie bam-ba-lam
She's so rock steady bam-ba-lam
And she's always ready bam-ba-lam
Whoa, black betty bam-ba-lam
Whoa, black betty bam-ba-lam

Get It!

Whoa, black betty bam-ba-lam
Whoa, black betty bam-ba-lam
She's from birmingham bam-ba-lam
Way down in alabam' bam-ba-lam
Well, she's shakin' that thing bam-ba-lam
Boy, she makes me sing bam-ba-lam
Whoa, black betty bam-ba-lam
Whoa, black betty bam-ba-lam

Excuse my insensitivity, but I'm just not feeling the racist vibe here. How is this insulting to black women? It was written by a black man, recorded by a black man, decades ago. It should be heralded as music history. So is it racist because a white group recorded it in the 70's? It was protested once and people ignored it because there was no merit. Now, almost thirty years later, it is being protested again. Again, with no merit.

Theoretically racist - what the hell? Shame on UNH for caving to this pressure.

TV Update...

Another season of Survivor has begun. All is right with the world.

My early favorite this year is Terry. He's a commercial pilot who used to be a fighter pilot. He's strong, physically and mentally, and is very likeable. So far, he has not fallen into the trap that other slightly older but super strong players have fallen into - he hasn't been too take charge and been perceived as controlling. Hopefully he can stick to that. He'll go far if he does.

Biggest waste of groceries so far? By far, that would be Shane. What a bipolar, ADD, jumping on my last nerve piece of crap he is. Everyone will get tired of that, but I would imagine that Survivor will figure out a way to keep him around. We've got to have someone to hate and no one else seems to be stepping up to the plate.

I saw a new reality show advertised. In the vein of American Idol, American Inventor will be hitting the airwaves. I honestly wondered if the commercial was some twisted early April Fools joke. There was no punchline.

Olympics start tonight! I'm so excited. I'm a complete Olympics freak, I admit it. I absolutely love the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.

Happy Friday all!

Hmmm...

Remember when, during the election the Democrats got all in an uproar about certain ads that Bush was running? Here is a quote from the Washington Post:

The ads strike a positive tone and don't mention Kerry. But the use of Sept. 11 imagery may cause some controversy and provide ammunition for Democrats who have long accused the president of exploiting the tragedy for political purposes.

Three years after the event, the Dems were outraged that he talk about 9/11 during the election, even though his handling of the immediate aftermath was the defining period of his first term. So imagine my shock when I watch a news story about Coretta Scott King's funeral service. The President spoke at the service - kindly, complimentary, and dignified. Then Rev. Lowery took the podium. What should have been a somber, respectful, and reflective funeral service honoring a great woman turned into a Bush bash. With the dead body of this woman only feet away, the political mudslinging began with whoops and cheers from the "mourners".
Congratulations - you have now fallen to a new low.

Another "hmmm" moment - during the Iowa/Northwestern basketball game last night, there were several female Muslim college students who appeared to be Middle Eastern sitting directly behind one of the baskets. They had their Northwestern garb like the rest of the student section but had their heads covered like good Muslim women do. The dichotomy of this alone was intriguing. They were all VERY into the game - seeming to be HUGE fans of the Wildcats. Kudos. The strangeness of the whole image really exploded when the crowd, in dispute of a call, began to chant "Bullshit". Yep, these good Muslim women with their head wraps neatly in place began to chant it enthusiastically. It was weird for me - like hearing a minister swear like a trucker.

Weekend...

The weekend was good. It was very relaxing in fact and didn't feel cut short. We have been heading to the casino most weekends and when we do that it just feels too short. Time flies when you're in there, plus I don't get a damned thing done because we generally stay most of the night so I'm napping most of the day on Sunday.

This weekend was different. I got Linux installed on an old PC that a co-worker gave to me because it wouldn't boot into Windows anymore. This was my first Linux install and it was much easier than I anticipated.

I wrote a paper for class and got a bit of studying done.

Purchased and downloaded the e-book version of the new Stephen King novel, Cell onto my iPaq and started it. So far it's very good.

The house is completely clean and all laundry got done. It helped that the kids were out of my way on Saturday. They stayed at a lake cabin with a family from the neighborhood. It was nice to be able to breeze through the house and not have a mess following behind you.

I had intended to go to the blogger get together, but it felt nice to just hole up in the house for the weekend. We had a fire in the fireplace all weekend and lounging in front of that Saturday night with my e-book was all the ambition I had.

We made a bunch of non-diet friendly food for the game yesterday. Hubby has been a Steelers fan forever. He wasn't a fair weather fan and supported them through the really bad years too. I didn't really care which team won. I was glad to see that Seneca Wallace didn't get a Super Bowl ring, but I don't have anything else against the Seahawks. It was an entertaining game.

As usual, my favorite commercial was the horses playing football. LOVE THEM.

Well, it's back to the grind today. Hope everyone else had a great weekend!

$1.00 gallon and the State of the Union...

Yesterday I got gas for $1.00/gallon. That's right folks. Filled up my tank for the gloriously low price of 10 bucks. Lakeside Casino was offering gas for a buck to their Players Club members yesterday. See...gambling can be profitable! Of course, they more than made up the difference once I went inside!

The State of the Union address was okay. I say okay because it always reminds me a bit too much of the campaigns - pretty words, rallying around your party, etc. What happens afterwards is always the ugly part. The lobbying, political backbiting, and partisan politics just for the sheer sake of partisan politics that ruin the process.

Every President since I've been alive, regardless of party, has asked for the line item veto. Why? It fucking makes sense, that's why. So why is it that the opposite party ALWAYS jeers and boos? Partisan politics. Doesn't matter that it makes sense. Just gotta fight it. Alway have. Always. Will.

Whoever wrote the Bush's speech did a marvelous job. For the most part it was worded in ways that made it very difficult for the Democrats to rebut. When you come out in support of Mom and apple pie, a rebuttal looks idiotic.

Speaking of Democrats looking idiotic, they erupted in a loud obnoxious cheer when Bush said, "Congress did not act last year on my proposal to save Social Security". Nothing got done. Nothing is fixed. Yeah - cheer it up, fucktards. We need to take away their cushy pension and health care coverage and make them take Social Security and Medicare. These asswipes wouldn't be cheering for failing to pass reform then. I know, I know...they were cheering defeating BUSH's proposal. Once again partisan politics screw things up. They didn't have to approve of his plan across the board. They could have had serious discussions with Bush and the Republicans and made compromises. Oh no. Not this group. This became a political hot button. Bush thought of it. Must. Be. Bad. Because of this sheer hatred, nothing got done. Social Security is still in need of saving. They failed pure and simple - the entire Congress failed. Now when called on it, the Dems cheer like school yard bullies and high five each other. Yeah, you really showed George. Whoopie. The American public is paying for your victory.