Crikey!

Strap a wing with four rocket engines to your back, and jump out of an airplane. Keep your nose pointed up!

Nickeled and Dimed to Death

Amazing how airlines, banks, telcos etc. have the guileless nerve to ding us with fees and we rarely protest, just eat it to keep our stress levels normal (they’ve learned how to incoporate this into their busiiness plans through deep psychological market reasearch).

CNN/Money has coplied this list of the 35 most outrageous fees (and how to avoid them).

[doc] fees sound legit (a document is being prepared, after all), but many are simply padding the lender’s bottom line, says Jack Guttentag, a mortgage expert who runs mtgprofessor.com. With so many fee names, you can’t always tell what’s what.

This Guys A Freakin’ Hero

In the pointless and demeaning War on Some Drugs, one officer of the law, Barry Cooper, has come to his sense. (He’s not the only one.)

Beginning in a weeks time, he will have a web site where he promises to tell you how to

Never Get Busted Again , …A promotional video [that] says Cooper will show viewers how to “conceal their stash,” “avoid narcotics profiling” and “fool canines every time.”

“My main motivation in all of this is to teach Americans their civil liberties and what drives me in this is injustice and unfairness in our system,” Cooper told the newspaper.

Penis Envy?

Read this and and of the fifteen things not well know about the male genital organ, this was very telling:

4. The average male orgasm lasts 6 seconds. Women get 23 seconds. Which means if women were really interested in equality, they’d make sure we have four orgasms for every one of theirs.

Gypped again.

Myth Busting

That old myth about how a consortium of industrial “playas” (GM, Firestone, Exxon) conspired to rid Los Angeles of it’s red car rail system of public transportation to get the public to switch over to automobiles never really passed the smell test.

Yet proponents of “clean fuel,” conspiracy theorists, fixed rail utopians, and just plain old granolas (what, you don’t like your VW Transporters anymore?) loved to spread the rumor that evil corporate America robbed you of your right to, erm, not own a car and destroyed what could have been a different and more favorable (in their view) America that perhaps walked more and weighed less.

But… the facts are the facts (TM), as this well written article portrays.

As with most myths, it started out with a grain of truth about something completely different, and then got tweaked, or as our frienemies in Washington like to term it ‘spinned’ by people who would have you drive a Prius or, Ged forbid, an Impact.

C’mon, you didn’t really fall for that one too, didja?

Fuzzy Memory, meet Chronology. Chronology and Fuzzy memory, meet Ocham’s razor.

It’s the Time of Year for Giving

Mark Your Calendars

You have until January 20 to visit this gallery showcasing the photos of Hunter S.Thompson.

Check out the Virtual Gallery here.

These photos have the feel of snapshots, but are very evocative of an era… and of the man.

Even though it’s not even hinted at, but because these are from the same era, I’m strongly reminded of the war in Vietnam. Much on my mind (see, I am like everyone else) these days as the US grapples with a seeming endless pit of despair in Iraq.

Just makes me feel sick that the people in charge now are by and large the same people working for the people in charge then.

What happened there, exactly?

Heck, if Clueless had only served. Dodging by entering the NG after daddy pulled some strings (unproven, but obvious) is a total cop out.

I have more respect for those that went to Canada; ultimately they were right, and smart enough to know that.

Clueless might have learned something had he served in Vietnam. Which might make this “ultimate decider” at least an informed decider.

But I digress. Visit the gallery, it might bring up similar feelings for you or about something completely different.

Heh ;^)

R. A. Wilson’s Blogging

Robert Anton Wilson is one of the great wits of wisdom of our stange, war-like culture. He’s had a web site since the earlist days, and now he’s added a blog.

He’s ailing and bed-ridden, but seems as feisty and humorus as ever.

I plan to visit it frequently.

Pop Quiz

For those running for national office, it should be required that they can answer every question correctly before papers can be stamped and duly filed.

And no cheating!

Think of it as an entrance exam.

Sample:

7. How many new jobs have been created by NAFTA?

a. 1,000,000
b. none — the US has effectively LOST 1,000,000 jobs due to NAFTA
c. none — the US has not lost or gained any jobs due to NAFTA
d. 56

BTW, this guy is the new House Intelligence Chairman (a Democrat) and seriously needs a tutor. Anyone have some time to help get him clued in?

Thanks, the check is in the mail.

We should probably have an exam for municipal and state election hopefuls as well, but a basic accounting degree should suffice. (A law degree is not a satisfactory substitute.)

(The answer to the above question is… ah hell no, you should follow the link.)

Me Want Some

According to The Telegraph, the 137-year-old ale has the flavor of raisins and sultanas, baked apple and honey.

<fx: Homer>  Mmmmm. Beer. </fx: Homer>