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Today's FART goes to the retarded kid in Utah that got his neighbor to put up the cardboard, "Caution: Retard's in the area" sign in his yard.
He gets the first award for actually being retard, versus figuratively retarded.
Although Bush will probably try to contest that one day.
In reality, it's Friday and I have a head ache.
Something strange is happening...
I'm drinking more beer than I used to.
I used to be a big fan of beer. I used to make my own. But then I wandered off in to the liquor forest and left beer behind. For some reason I considered beer clumsy and unsophisticated. Beer was for NASCAR dads.
But I've been drinking it again.
Mostly because people keep bringing it over to my house and leaving it. To free up fridge space, I've been drinking them. Luckily my friends have good taste and bring over butt beer.
But I've found myself renewing my interest in beer. I like very much the easy of use. Mixing drinks is a pain so a pop top beer solution is great. I enjoy mixing drinks, but it's become tedious.
It's very strange.
I don't think I've traded my Bacardi for Bass, but beer is now in the regular rotation again.
And I'll probably start brewing again.
So that's kinda cool.
Brad Pitt.
Once glam-boy, then baby maker husband of the big lipped version the Tomb Raider chick, now personal savior.
Jesus Pitt has taken it upon himself to help save the world... and encourage you to do the same. He's not saving the world by contributing millions of dollars towards organizations or helpless people. He's doing better... he's talking about it.
Getting on camera and discussing how tired he is about thinking only of himself.
Good for you Pitt.
I'm tired of thinking about you too. Your stock went up with me in Snatch and 12 Monkeys... even Ocean's 11, but since then you've been a vapor trail of talent and a sonic boom of blather.
Wow... don't know why I suddenly went into flight metaphors.
Anyway... shut up and right a check, Pitty.
I suppose this could wait until tomorrow and go up as a FART for the week, but I already have other ideas for that. Keep a "middle eastern" eye on that one for tomorrow.
So Dumb-Bumb vetoed the Stem Cell research bill essentially blocking federal dollars for the research projects. That, in and of itself, doesn't make him an idiot... it was his rationale for the veto. Here are a few examples of ligitimate reasons for not using Federal dollars on the project.
1-The science is very dubious and it could be a cash sink hole.
2-Federal dollars shouldn't be in the medical research field, leave it to the pharms to figure it out.
3-The budget is still a mess and we need all the money we've got on pre-spent projects, not new ones.
But alas... we got, "American taxpayers for the first time in our history would be compelled to fund the deliberate destruction of human embryos."
So what.
American taxpayers are compelled to fund all kinds of things that they may disagree with ethically, morally or religiously.
The Supreme Court has heard (what out, flash of college coming at you) 3 major cases regarding this sort of thing. ( if you want to look at the court records goole for Flast, Frothingham, and Mellon)
The courts essentially established that Joe American can't sue the US government for spending money that goes against Joe's moral character. The original case was a 1st Amendment case basically saying freedom of religion was impared by the federal govt taxing a citizen who opposed a specific govt action based on religious grounds. A good example would be a US muslim who sues the govt for using his tax dollars for a holy war against his brothers in Allah. The Supreme Court basically said that all tax revenue is lumped together in the treasury with no ties to an individual. Spending programs draw from the treasury, not from an individual. So, yeah... basically after the money goes to IRS, it's not yours. Your money goes to pay for an M-16 or a tank, or a bridge, or who knows.
The second case basically set limits on the first one. It basically said that Federal tax dollars couldn't be used to oppress or thwart a religion. It granted standing to a person if a federal tax based program prohibited or inhibited their ability to practice their religion.
Anyway... Bush is using a double standard saying that the ethical issue of taxes for a questionable project is bad, because those same court rulings are what support his Office of Faith-based Initiates and permit tax handouts to large numbers of organizations with dubious agendas or have questionable practices (like the Boy Scouts).
You can argue that unused fetices for sciences is a bad trade, but aside from bad science, it's bad law to.
Now, lawyer on the other half of my brain will say this. Bush can veto anything for any reason. He doesn't have to have a creditible explaination based on law.
A clear majority of people in this country are in support of this measure, but instead the decision is made not scientifically, not legally (meaning based on precendent), or popularly (respecting the will of the people). It was based religiously to support a narrow-minded group of people who still prefer mysticism to reality.
The plan was to stay away from Las Vegas this year (and most of last year) and save up cash for a pirate adventure next year. I might still be able to swing the pirate thing next year, but we'll see.
Two of my friends from high school (two of the three I'm still in touch with) are getting married in October and they're throwing a combined bachelor party in Las Vegas. I can't really say no.
I guess I could.
But I'm not going to.
So... I'm going to Las Vegas in 5 weeks. That'll be fun.
I've got to practice my poker skills some before I go though. Not much. Most of the people I play cards with are 10x better than most of the Las Vegas low-level players. And no... I'm not going to go play the higher stakes games for a challenge. I'd rather fleece tourists than lose my shirt. If I want a challenge, I'll try to balance a spoon on my nose while drunk. If I want to play cards with strangers for money, I'll take my opponents nice and stupid please.
Today's post is less negativity than usual.
It's probably not healthy to be mad at the world all the time so I'll keep my FART short today.
Home Owners Associations... every single one of them.
Yeah, in theory they're supposed to protect property values blah, blah, blah... but in reality it's just a layer of government bs. It's not even run by intelligent people usually... often it's the neighborhood busy bodies.
We have a management company that runs ours and I've taken a liking to pissing them off.
On another note... the Pink Floyd PULSE DVD came out on Tuesday.
I finally got time to watch it last night... it's only 4 hours of content so finding time was hard.
It's very snazzy. It's 4:3 ratio is annoying... but it was filmed... actually it wasn't it was video taped in 1994 and widescreen home entertainment didn't exist. That aside, the video clean up they did was amazing. Also... surround sound.... wow.
Very wow.
If you like Pink Floyd... the DVD is worth a pick up. It's $15 at Best Buy.
Just a quick update on the wife. She's doing better.
Her back is still pretty sore and pinchy, but that was what we expected based on conversations with the ER doc. By tomorrow it should be getting better, if not we get her checked out more.
I'm now having the fun of playing "Find the Damaged Car". My mission is to find out what towing company has her car and then get it to a body shop.
USAA has been very helpful as far as insurances go.
Hopefully I won't have to get lawyered up. USAA is going to reimburse me for out of pocket expenses and deductibles (they're going to sue the bad guy driver) etc. The only thing not covered would be pain and suffering and missed work. Because she was at work at the time (driving on assignment) I'm curious if it's a worker's comp issue.
More to follow of course, and thanks for all of the well wishes.
It's been a stupid Tuesday.
My wife got involved in a car accident today.
She was stopped at a light in the left turn lane and an on-coming truck ran the redlight and t-boned a car in the intersection. The t-boned car flew into the left turn and collided with the stopped car in front of my wife... that car was hit, spun 180 degrees and smashed into my wife's car.
The only driver that didn't go to the hospital was the t-boned driver. She was fine.
My wife got pretty bad whiplash and got her back out of whack. 4 hours of ER.
The prognosis is good, but she's on happy pills and bed rest for a few days. The x-rays showed some disc slippage, but hopefully it will take care of itself in a few days. If not, she'll need to see an orthopedic doc and go from there.
I'm not sure what'll happen to the car. I need to find it... it was towed off.
Stupid Tuesday indeed.
Wednesday will be better. I'm going lawyer shopping.
Hi kids...
Keep your eye on dangerous religo-nazi republicans... they're up to no good.
In order to help ebb the tide of all of the seperation of church and state and 1st amendment law suits going around... the religious fanatics in our country are going to change our language instead of changing the Constitution... because it's easier.
In the old days... Christianity was a religion. So was Hinduism, Taoism, and any other religion you could found in Civilization 4. Not any more.
Religions are protected or restricted by various constitutional mandates... depending on which side of the shroud you're on.
Philosophies are not.
That's right ladies and gentlemen... the latest craze in DC is to refer to Christianity (and all of its symbols on federal land) as a philosophy. Catholicism, Baptist, Methodist, Anglican... those are all religions.
So you can put a cross in a courthouse and say in god we trust on money... because that's a common christian philosophy... not a religous icon. If our money said, "Baptist Bill Be Blessed"... then... well that's religion encroaching.
Note... star of david... that's Jewish... and Judaism is still a religion... as are all of the other ones. So no star of David in a courthouse.
You must completely embrace the duality of Christianity now... it's a philosophy... when it needs to spread. It's a religion when it needs protection.
Gotta love the simplicity and perfection of a fatal virus mutation.
...Me. Because I haven't posted anything this week. Boo Hiss!
It was a good news week too.
North Korea is launching missiles at Japan.
Enron Kingpin Dies Mysteriously.
Snooty Champagne Manufacturers Don't Like Their Products Being Associated With That Hippity-Hop Music.
And other assorted things.
I'll try harder next week, I mean it. I was just too busy to make with the posts.
Oh, yeah... I'll post something next week about how much I like fireworks and why I support the right for idiots to blow their fingers off if they want to.
Until then... boom and stuff.