10=15

PJ’s “Ten” turns 15 years old on Sunday, and “No Code” turns 10 years old. Crank ‘em up on Sunday if you can!

A Step Forward

Here’s an article, written by Sean Naylor, about liberating Anah. 

Attention Blackberry Addicts

Your mental capacity is deteriorating as you message me and your friends. Look out!

And The Idiocy Continues….

One name: Cindy Sheehan.

 

Funny Stuff

Enough Is Enough

Travelers are no longer allowed to bring water on board a plane in their travel bag. And that is absurd. They cannot bring toothpaste either, peroxide and a list of other items as well. Toothpaste is essential, isn’t it? And for me, peroxide is as well. I use them to maintain my Invisaligns. I brush my teeth after every snack, drink and/or meal. In fact, for the last year, I have not gone anywhere without a travel toothbrush, mouthwash and floss in my purse. I understand that terrorism is real, but this seems too extreme, much like taking off one’s shoes before a commercial flight.

My suggestion is to perform an air security check prior to flying, similar to those administered before flying privately (via fractional ownership companies.) This way, people are cleared prior to flying and things can flow better upon arrival.

That leads me to my next point; 3 years ago, the cost to fly 25 hours privately, in a medium cabin jet was $250,000. Now it is about $115,000. I understand that it is still expensive, but in the same way cell phones, plasma TVs and other amenities have gone down in price, private transportation has as well.

In either scenario, one must take the good with the bad. But if the piles of regulations continue to grow, look for stock to soar in places like NetJets, FlexJets and other privately run air services.

 

The Lebanese Crisis (By RPD, Esq.)

RPD commented on this a few days ago, and again, I’ve decided to move his thoughts to the front page.  We disagree on this substantially, but since he has already taken the time to express his opinion I’ll post it. And I’ll respond with my own comments later.

 

 

Okay, so this is going to get a lot of people mad, and if the powers that be happen to see what I say in here, I will most likely be arrested for treason, but I don’t care. I am going to write something right now which has been on my mind for a few days, and no matter how crazy it sounds to many of you, it all makes perfect sense to me, even if I myself am admitting it is farfetched.

First, let me say, one of the best friends I ever had was from Beirut. We met in AFrica, and were best friends for years. After I moved back to the states, he moved to Lebanon to pursue higher education. I can only hope and pray that he is well today.

Now, regarding this Israel-Hezbollah conflict, I think we as a nation are making a terrible mistake. I hold President Bush personally responsible for the bombing of the building in Lebanon Sunday morning which killed 34 children. I hold Mr. Bush personally responsible for the continued bloodshed in Lebanon and the surrounding region today. I hold Bush, and his cronies responsible for this entire conflict. This conflict is a momentous occasion in human history. With this conflict, the United STates had a choice to either win back international support, or further alienate ourselves from the rest of the world. We of course chose the obvious path for Bush: further alienation. We had an opportunity when this conflict started to step up to the plate and tell our friends the Israelis that what they were doing was wrong, and to tell them to declare a cease-fire. Now, of course we aren’t the boss of Israel, but we all know, that what we say has is given great weight in that country. More often than not, Israel does what we want them to do. More often then not, the Israelis would do what we suggest they do to assure that they will always have our continuing support. Two weeks ago, when our NATO allies were calling for a cease-fire, our brilliant President said he support no such thing. He said a cease-fire would not solve the underlying issue. He may be right that calling a cease-fire would not rid the world of Hezbollah, but it would have saved lives. HOW COULD ANY COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATIVE, OR LIBERAL FOR THAT MATTER, NO SUPPORT A CEASE-FIRE? If the president is such a God fearing man, shouldn’t he have done the Christian thing, and requested that Israel stop murdering innocent civilians in a nation that isn’t even an enemy? We had the opportunity to save thousands of innocent lives by throwing our weight around. We had the opportunity to garner some support from our Muslim friends, and we blew it. While even Britain supported a cease-fire, we stood pat and refused to support such a revolutionary idea. This disgusts me. All of this bloodshed over the kidnapping of one Israeli soldier? Yeah, like Israel has never done anything wrong…. Now, as a result of the bombings this past weekend, not only are the Sunnis and the Shiites uniting against Israel and it’s only legitimate ally in this conflict, the United States, but Lebanese and other Middle East CHRISTIANS are joining with the Muslims AGAINST Israel and the United States. Yeah, brilliant foreign policy asshole…. Now, we have not only alienated ourselves from the Muslim world, but from some in the Christian world as well. Does no one care?????

Not only did we support Israel in its continued military operations, but we of course supplied them with the weapons they are using to kill innocent people. We have done all of this for what? For the hope that we will rid the world of Hezbollah? Great, so we get rid of Hezbollah. Does this really change anything? For every member of Hezbollah that the Israelis kill in this conflict, they are creating hundreds more of future Muslim extrmemists with their tactics. So we rid the world of Hezbollah, it doens’t really solve anything. There will always be extremists, and the more we alienate the Muslim world, the more extremists we will create. Can our chief moron not understand this?

Furthermore, I other than the fact that the Jews have money, why do we even take sides in this conflict? Why did we determine that the Jews were better than the Muslims? We all originated from the same place historically. We all worship the same God. The Muslims even recognize Jesus as an extremely important prophet. The Jews don’t. The Muslims, religiously, are more closely alligned with Christians than the Jews are. I don’t understand why we care so much about the Jews (and in no way is that anti-semetic. I think we should be objective and not support either party).

Now for the part that is way out there. The real reason Bush and his cronies are actually supportive of this conflict. We all know that the Republican party is controlled by the religious right. We all know that it is this religious right which gets Republicans elected by making the rest of us appear to be heathens. Here is my theory. The religious right (our Christian extremists, who are no different than Muslim extremists) is obsessed with Armegeddon and End Times. The religious right is always trying to predict the end of the world. They dream that they can be alive when Jesus comes back. If we read Revelations, then we know that the battle of Armegeddon is to take place in the Middle East. We know that World War III is to begin there. We know that this is where the world ends (according to those who take Revelations literally (even though it was only a DREAM the writer had)). That said, of course Bush is going to want conflict in the Middle East. The more conflict the better. The more bloodshed, the better. With each day of continuing bloodshed, the religious zealots believe we get one step closer to the "rapture" (which by the way is no where mentioned in the Bible). It is because of this that we must have violence in the Middle East, and it is for this reason that even when there is overall peace in the region (like before the Iraq war), we are uneasy. The conservatives WANT to be alive when the end of the world comes. They think it’s their destiny. Why else would we be so opposed to peace? I have thought about this for quite awhile, and this is the only logical explanation, that even seems remotely plausible other than the simple idea that Bush is just a warmonger with no rationalization to his actions.

Let me clarify…..When I say Christians want Armegeddon, and that they want to be here when End Times come, I am not talking about regular, every day Christians. I am talking about the far right religious faction controlled by the Falwell’s of the world. This is the faction which tends to control religious dialogue in this country right now….

More Scrappers In This Country Than Golfers?

"This hobby has surpassed golf in popularity: one in four households has someone playing golf; one in three has someone involved in scrapbooking."

 

My friend, Jaime, sent me the above link.  I just wanted to show you all I’m not the only scrapping addict in the world.   

 

I’m lucky to have found two hobbies to add to the list of others that make me immensly happy.

Golf challenges me (shut it, Gordon,) and scrapping gives me to the opportunity to expand my creative side.
 
If you haven’t tried one of these, you should.  Everyone should do things that make them happy.  Life’s too short to have it any other way.
 

I Just Saw The Saddest Thing Ever

My former schnauzer, Oliver, who was viciously taken away from me, has his own MySpace page. Don’t ask me how I ran across it, but I did.  I gave someone a hard time last week for letting things they saw on MySpace bother them, but I understand now – in a major way.

Though I know I’ll never see Oliver again, knowing someone else is playing with him, giving him Christmas presents, etc. just makes my heart sink. And those feelings are worsened by the fact that while I’d love him no matter what, and I always will, he looks like shit!

Many of you know what he looked like when he was mine. He was clean, wore Burberry sweaters and always smelled good. Now he looks like a scruffy half-breed. For the record, he is still adorable to me.

One would think something like this wouldn’t bother me anymore. After all, it’s been about two years and everything was so different then…I was so different then. I lived across the country, and that’s the least of the changes that have occurred.

I wish I could take him for walks around the lake again or tell him to be quiet when someone knockes on the door and he goes crazy or just fall asleep with him laying on my head or my feet.

Now that I’ve vented about it, I will start feeling better. After telling Ben, he suggested that I need to get myself a new dog…little Salvatore. Needless to say, I agree with him.

Thanks for reading…