Soap Box

I think there is a gap in between those who know what the Internet is, know what it is good for, and know what it is not good for. This gap is not generational, its not social, its not economic, its just a gap. This gap is far wider than I think anyone knows or reports on. Case in point, I was looking for some information about some local programs in my community. I knew what I was looking for specifically and traced it down to a couple of agencies. I called their numbers but got the switch board and since I didn't really know who I need to talk to I just exited as politely as possible and sent emails.

One of them was to the director (top of the food chain) in this organization.

After a week of not getting a response I sent another email asking "is this email going to a person or is it just a dead end box"

After another week I still did not get an answer so I assumed that the non-answer was the answer and the later was correct.

Today I got a response (27 days later), and not to the original request, but to the question about where these emails go, and the response was, these emails go to the person that assigned to the subject of the email. that was it. Really? So I fired off another email (removing all of the satire I wanted to inject) asking my original question again..... and I wait.

Not to be out done

So I read this post

http://bostonlegalsass.blogspot.com/2009/09/email-of-day_17.html

and kudo's I needed a laugh yesterday, and laughed so hard I cramped, but couldn't help but think of my own story and its not actually my story its my brothers story.

Brother lived in a rental in the country and had a large pen in the back in the back where he kept his two horses and a couple of pet goats. Well if you have ever had goats you know that you better have a fence that you can't pour water through if you expect to keep them in, its not about hunger, or desire, its about not wanting to be inside a fence, they just need to escape.

So my brother goes and gets the biggest joule charger from tractor supply, hooks it up, runs the wire around the pen, ties the ground back to the existing fence and waits. Goats are like velociraptors in this reguard, they "test the fence", and it wasnt long before the figured out that if they were really fast the shock was not the bad. So he calls me, I say you need a ground rod you live in the sandy part of town. So off to tractor supply for a ground rod he goes. Installs an 8 footer hooks it all back up and waits.

Sitting on his back porch, he watches the goats go through the fence, did I mention that while watching them from his back porch he had gone and gotten a couple of cold "refreshments". So he is frustrated now, he walks out to the fence and grabs hold of the wire and nothing, not a shock, not a nip, not a spark, so now he is pissed and goes back in the house for a few more "refreshments"

Now after changing out of his work boots and jeans, note work boots with oil resistant soles that are over an inch thick and made of leather, he returns to the fence to determine why there was no shock. .... does anyone see where this is going?

He puts his refreshment down (cold sweating refreshment which has now left his hand wet)
Neals down on one knee in his shorts (vs squating in the sand with work boots on)
Grabs the grounding rod (never ground yourself first)
and then Grabs the hot wire (hillarity ensues)

You never ever grab a wire that might carry current, your hand will contract and you cant let go, so he now is fully grounded and holding both ends so as he is starting to scream and piss him self he finds a way to unplug the charger

Story of the ages

Shooter the Movie

So this is a real bad movie and sometimes I get sucked into them late night with nothing on the other 200 channels. Especially when I flip over it during the shootemup scenes. However, after DVR'ing and goging back and watching it front to back, I walked away with a sense of realization.

I believe that often what we see on TV, we just say, "Hey neat movie, good fiction". What if we are wrong. Sometimes the best fiction is based on real life. That is why sterotype jokes work. Somewhere, at sometime, there is a piece of the stereotype that was true enough to make it funny. So like good fiction...

The premise behind the movie is that there is a sniper fresh out of the gulf. He is hiding in the mountains living off the land with his dog and his guns. All american guy. Then one of the ABC groups shows up and wants him to come to Washington to help them stop an assination attempt. They figure who to know better how to stop an assination than one of the top guys in the world who could plan one. So the pull out the patriot card and he goes, only to find out that it was one of the ABC groups who was planning it, and its all set up to frame him for the job. Like all of these, he ends up killing all of them because justice can not touch them. However, near the end of the movie there were two quotes that caught my attention.

Senator Charles F. Meachum: There are no sides. There's no Sunnis and Shiites. There's no Democrats and Republicans. There's only HAVES and HAVE-NOTS.

Senator Charles F. Meachum: This is a country, where the Secretary of Defense can go on T.V., and tell the American public, oh, that "This is about freedom! It's not about oil!" And nobody questions him, cuz they don't wanna hear the answer, because it's a lie! There are only so many places at the table, Gunnie. Now, are you on the INSIDE, or are you on the OUT?

Is this really where we are today.. are we at the point of the haves and have not's, are we at the point of being on the inside or the outside.

on Second Thought... what if everything you believe is wrong

I come from a conservative family and have been a Republican in mind most of my life. As the new administration starts to push its "everybody gets a paycheck" mentality it only begs the question what if I am wrong.

WWJD?

Is Socialism better for everyone than Democracy (we are not a Democracy we are a Republic)?

Sick and Tired of being Sick and Tired

What does one have to do, to make a change in today's world.... not a rhetorical question, but an honest open question.

I did not vote for our president, but when it was done, I started listening to him, and then I started liking what he was saying, and now I see that he was just like ever other politician i.e. says what ever it takes to get elected.

So first we got a stimulus plan that doesn't stimulate and today we sit on the verge of nationalizing the banks.

I am smart guy but not as smart as the founding fathers.

"The incorporation of a bank and the powers assumed [by legislation doing so] have not, in my opinion, been delegated to the United States by the Constitution. They are not among the powers specially enumerated." --Thomas Jefferson: Opinion on Bank, 1791. ME 3:146

http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff1325.htm

boy was he a smart guy.