Archive for June, 2008
Why Blog?
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008I dunno…..’cuz I wanna?
Well, TigerHawk talks about the friends he’s made and I agree. Perhaps the most amazing thing to happen through blogging has been making friends with some of the smartest, kindest, funniest, and most interesting people. It’s like being in college and enjoying all the diverse people, minus the buttheads (check that, there’s buttheads in the blogosphere, I just don’t have to smell them–wait, that sounds really bad) and roommates (actually, I had good roommates, so I can’t complain), so it’s way better.
Also, I like sharing ideas and honing them, too. People smarter than me correct my stinkin’ thinkin’ and that makes me smarter–well, a little.
The money generally sucks, but I make my own hours and can work with a toddler sitting on my head which is a bonus.
Do Some’in
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008Is that how Brit Brit would spell it? I dunno. Anyway, this oil business can be solved. You can help. Go here and make a “bit” of a difference.
Shoot me now. I’ve employed way over the limit of puns today. Had to wedge that in there. Darn you, John NOT F. Kerry!
The First Sacrifice On Obama’s Altar: Giving Up Impure Thoughts
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008Oh, there will be many sacrifices. If the Dems have their way, teensy things like taking over private companies in the oil industry (because it’s worked so well for Russia and Venezuela) and socializing medicine will be the new and better way, because the government never f@cks up anything they touch. Nosirreee, the government is super fantastic awesome!
There will be joy at the oil prices because well, middle class people can walk to work or take public transportation, never mind that there isn’t transportation in the suburb where they live. Suburbs are suboptimal anyway. I mean, real people live in the cities and don’t birth children. It’s the lame people’s fault for being breeders and being so stupid. Stop having kids and use something besides incandescent bulbs, people. And stop eating cheeseburgers and driving your SUV, pigs. Loving thoughts like that.
So, there will be that. There will be the little thing of saving the world with some sweet, huggy love. It will get even better, though, because it won’t be enough to control business, your personal life and your way of life. No, your very thoughts and words will have to comply, friends, because there are good thoughts and there are bad thoughts and bad thoughts and ideas are not acceptable. Jeff Goldstein shares one example of an ideological debate that really isn’t about ideas at all, you can go read the details, and concludes:
As progressivism moves forward, free speech will almost surely be murdered on the altar of political correctness — if only because that ploy rids progressives of the messy business of having to deal with what they consider unpleasant and untoward opposition to their ideas.
Which they can only do because they believe their ideas are inherently right and just by virtue of their holding them.
Circular and dangerous, but the state of nature in this, Obama’s America.
Well, it’s not Obama’s America, yet, but it’s disturbing how many freedoms Americans seem willing to give up for the false security progressives promise but have never, since Marx himself, delivered.
Cross-posted at Right Wing News
AP: Turnabout Is Fair Play
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008So the AP doesn’t want bloggers to use their content without paying. Remember when you were in college and wrote a paper and quoted an AP newspaper article and gave credit? That’s called fair use and it’s not copyright infringement. It’s quoting with attribution. Bloggers do this all the time. AP doesn’t like it and want to charge bloggers per word. It’s hilarious, but they’re serious. Seriously stupid.
Michelle Malkin would like to charge AP for using her material without attribution and no link–a serious violation of blogger ethics. You’ll notice, that when I quote someone or appreciate their take, I link it. Major newspapers don’t seem to feel bound by this same courtesy. They are above the insignificant bloggers but have no problem lifting material. Michelle says:
Ok, let’s play. Tongue planted firmly in cheek, of course. Unlike the AP, bloggers appreciate getting linked and excerpted. That is how we roll in the 21st century.
But let’s apply AP standards for the hell of it. I have found two recent examples of the AP quoting from this blog without linking to the quoted posts or obtaining my consent for a usage agreement. In April, AP quoted from the comment thread in this post about Absolut’s Aztlan vodka ad:
More than a dozen calls to boycott Absolut were posted on michellemalkin.com, a Web site operated by conservative columnist Michelle Malkin. The ads sparked heated comment on a half-dozen other Internet sites and blogs.
“In an Absolut world, a company that produces vodka fires its entire marketing department in a desperate attempt to win back enraged North American customers after a disastrous ad campaign backfires,” a person using the moniker “SalsaNChips” wrote on Malkin’s Web site.
That’s 42 words. Cha-ching-ching-ching.
The old media is dying and they think this will breath life into them. Ace has a novel solution.
I have a solution: Never again link to the AP, don’t read anything from the AP and exclusively read original content on the Web or from writers.
Thong-Induced Injuries Deserves Class Action Status
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008Some things are inevitable, you just wonder why it took so long:
As she was attempting to put on a Victoria’s Secret thong, a Los Angeles woman claims that a decorative metallic piece flew off the garment and struck her in the eye, causing injuries and a new product liability lawsuit against the underwear giant. Macrida Patterson, 52, alleges that she was hurt last May by a defective “low-rise v-string” from the Victoria’s Secret “Sexy Little Thing” line, according to a lawsuit filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court. A copy of her June 9 complaint, which does not specify monetary damages, can be found below. Patterson’s lawyer, Jason Buccat, told TSG that a “design problem” caused the decorative piece to come loose and strike Patterson in the eye, causing damage to her cornea. He added that the eye injury, which caused Patterson to miss a few days of work, will be “affecting her the rest of her life.”
Most women I know have been injured by thongs. Besides the physical damage, there’s the humiliation of knowing that she’s willfully put a clothing garment in her butt crack ostensibly to avoid a lesser disaster: the dreaded panty lines. Men wouldn’t wear a bra. Men wouldn’t wear high heels. Men wouldn’t wear panty hose. And men certainly wouldn’t wear thongs. It’s a conspiracy to create a perpetual state of discomfort and misery in the fairer sex.
This lawsuit deserves a lot more attention. Women of the world unite! Bring Victoria’s Secret down for being the purveyors of a clothing product that has complete disregard for human health and dignity.
Cross-posted at Right Wing News
Antipsychotics Up Death In Those With Dementia
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008Antipsychotics should be given to psychotic and schizophrenic people. Period:
Antipsychotic drugs aren’t specifically approved to treat dementia. They’re mainly used to treat patients with schizophrenia. But people with dementia sometimes suffer delusions or hallucinations and may exhibit violent behavior. Doctors may prescribe antipsychotics to control these behaviors.
Are Americans That Stupid?
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008Rachel Lucas wants to start a new category on her blog possibly called, “Most People Are Too Stupid To Vote But They Do Anyway So We Are All Going To Die.” I already have a category “We’re All Gonna Die”, but I usually reserve that for the latest bird flu epidemic, global warming or other bout of unhinged hysteria put forth by the elites aimed at enslaving the masses, so it’s kinda related.
Rachel is despondent because most Americans are idiots. Yes, well that can give you a lifelong depression, if you think about to much. There is a solution, though, for the screwballs who think things like this:
A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 29% of voters favor nationalizing the oil industry. Just 47% are opposed and 24% are not sure.
Here’s my proposal: America should go back to the good old days when only those who own property can vote. If you don’t have a vested interest in a piece of property, you just don’t have a vested interest.
Also, it would help if a person could read and as some of Rachel’s readers suggested, pass a common civics exam. Of course, that would eliminate Obama and his 57 states from voting, too.
Cross-posted at Right Wing News
Best Emails Yet
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008I know I’m not the lone blogger receiving crazy emails. It’s part of the territory. The funniest have been from Nazmul. Yesterday, he sent me this request:
Dear Melissa,Would you please tell me about clothe free or nude society?
Last week he sent this:
Dear Melissa,My name is Nazmul, I am 19 years old, right now studying Economics in university and I live in Bangladesh (Bangladesh is located in South Asia).Lately I have learned how operate computer as well as internet. I have gotten your e-mail number through searching internet.I shall write some thing to you honestly. When i was in school,the main topic of our conversation among friends was girls,prostitution,nude,pornography.Since my childhood i have been dreaming to go to America.But now it is impossible to visit USA for a boy of third world country.As a doctor would you please tell me about prostitution,pornography,nude society,child pornography illicit relationship between boys and girls?Hope you will reply to my e-mail.g. Good bye.
I didn’t respond to these emails. But I’m tempted to say that in America, people don’t wear clothes. People have sex all the time. The only reason for the internet is really good porn. Prostitution is a right confirmed by the constitution. And boys and girls get their sexual education from public school teachers.
Come to America, Nazmul. You’ll love our nude society. I would say he has a skewed perspective of America, but, really, who are we kidding?
Poor Rocco
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008Rocco knew it. The other competitors knew it. When, Tiger Woods sank that put, rimming it, on the 18th hole of the U.S. Open on Sunday, everyone knew it: Game over. Tiger just won, now it was a formality (of winning 18 more holes and a tie-breaker for good measure.) But, it was over.
What an incredible athlete. What a champion. What a demonstration of mental strength. Don’t bet against Tiger. You’ll lose.
Cross-posted at Right Wing News
Pro-Life Pharmacies
Monday, June 16th, 2008It might be legal, but is it right? In answering the question for themselves, some pharmacists have refused to fill prescriptions of birth control pills or morning after pills. I am really torn about this whole thing, actually. While I’m all for people not violating their consciences, I just think there are better ways to deal with this than refusing service. For a pharmacist who doesn’t want to fill a morning after pill prescription, why can’t he just have his co-worker do it? Why the need to lecture the woman?
This whole issue brings to mind the Muslim taxi drivers refusing to pick up someone who has been drinking, is drinking, or carrying alcohol or others not taking seeing eye dogs. It’s legal. If they don’t like to pick up all people, even those they disagree with, pick another freaking profession. My sentiments go the same direction about persnickity pharmacists.
However, it seems to me that an Ob/Gyn is well within his or her rights to refuse to perform an abortion. In fact, few people get the specialized training for them, so forcing a doctor to do this procedure could, in fact, be harmful to the woman wanting one.
The free market has a solution–pro-life pharmacies:
When DMC Pharmacy opens this summer on Route 50 in Chantilly, the shelves will be stocked with allergy remedies, pain relievers, antiseptic ointments and almost everything else sold in any drugstore. But anyone who wants condoms, birth control pills or the Plan B emergency contraceptive will be turned away.
That’s because the drugstore, located in a typical shopping plaza featuring a Ruby Tuesday, a Papa John’s and a Kmart, will be a “pro-life pharmacy” — meaning, among other things, that it will eschew all contraceptives.
So, pharmacists who work here can work with a free conscience. Hmmmm….. I seem to remember Catholic hospitals being forced to dispense certain drugs and perform certain procedures, including abortions. In fact, a Catholic hospital in Colorado was sued by a “transgender” woman for not allowing the surgery and the hospital eventually relented. That just happened in March. This seems to violate the separation of church and state, but then, the hospital isn’t a church, per se. It’s a charity.
A pharmacy is a private business so they can do whatever they want, right? Substitute people seeking birth control drugs, for say, HIV drugs. Say the pharmacy decides to not sell cholesterol lowering drugs because fat people aren’t “honoring the temple”. Really, many medications are needed because of some stupid lifestyle choice. Stopping at the sexual vices seems rather limiting.
What do you think?
