I love kids

I like kids. Not to the point where I want any of my own right now but they are cool. Most are fun, smarter than we might give them credit for (they then become dumber as teenagers) and sweet.

When I’m at the store, standing in line behind a mother and/or father and the child, I’ll make faces or try to do stuff that makes them laugh. I enjoy it and they do, too.

But I got to thinking about all of the “training” I got as a small child about how we aren’t supposed to talk to strangers. I also realized there are a lot of freaks and criminals out there who prey on children and get the children comfortable around them by doing just what I do. So, I could actually be putting these children at risk, by making them think all strangers are good, especially the fun ones.

So I’ve decided to stop doing this and figure I’ll be doing them and their families a public service by doing the exact opposite. I want them to fear and be suspicious of strangers. Some ideas:

-If the kid is close by, lean forward and scream loudly in his face.

-Take items off the shelf and throw them at the kids.

-Punch the child’s parent in the face. But this only works if you know you can handle a fight with that parent. If the parent looks like Marcellus Wallace from Pulp Fiction, I’d just ignore them instead.

-Stick your finger down your throat and puke. If any of it gets on the child, bonus.

-Wear a t-shirt showing a kid getting hit w/ a baseball bat.

-Let the child see you stealing things.

-Spit.

-Glare at the kid and mouth to him “I’m going to kill you.”

-Wear that Burger King outfit.

Give me some of your ideas. I mean, it’s all for the children, right?

Voting

Last night I hung out with a friend I hadn’t seen in a year. She’s been living in NYC since June 2003. We’ll call her Cassie M. Wait, I mean, C. Maxton. (thank you principal Skinner)

CM is a really sharp gal. She was a HS friend of my sister’s but I don’t think they keep in touch much anymore. She was an ardent conservative in high school but has become more apolitical as she’s gotten older.

We were driving around last night and she mentioned that she didn’t know who she was going to vote for. That pretty much stunned me. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why ANYONE could be undecided right now. What more do you need to know about the candidates? If you are ignorant about them, its your own fault (which she freely admitted. At least she’s in touch w/ reality!). If you’re for oppressing minorities and exploiting the poor for the benefit of the wealthy, you vote Republican. If you want to turn the country into a commie state and tax everyone into the ground, you vote Democrat.

People who fall into this category, I’ve decided to stop helping w/ the issues. I’m just going to encourage them not to vote. I’ve become more comfortable with the idea of restricting the vote. I think if you miss voting in a presidential election, you shouldn’t be able to vote again, unless you can prove some kind of hardship presented you from voting. If people just don’t care, then I don’t want the morons voting. Stupid people voting puts our republic at risk.

I’m going to end up moving to the south, buying some hunting rifles and shooting anyone that steps on my property some day.

By the way, that stupid Burger King commercial is still on. I'll never eat there again unless they replace that golden freak with Kerri Walsh.

What I ~feel~ and think.

Ok, here’s the warning and disclaimer. There might be some swearing below and some statements that offend you on a personal and/or political level. Know this: those liberals that I know personally, I feel I know well enough to exclude them from the group I’m referring to here. But this is how I *feel*. I normally don’t write or talk about how I *feel* but yesterday really impacted me. And this is the conflict I feel within between some deeply held personal/political convictions and my faith as a Christian. I rationalize it by calling it righteous anger. Don’t like it? Well, I wish you the best.

But please DO feel free to comment. I understand my post will be harsh so I won’t ban anyone from posting if their reaction is equally harsh. That wouldn’t be fair. So here goes.

I went to lunch and passed a church on the way. I noticed that out front there were a whole bunch of combat boots. I instantly knew what was going on. This was an anti-war “exhibit.” I grabbed a newspaper to read while eating and drove back past the church. I decided to pull in and check it out and ask a few questions. They weren’t done setting it up yet but it was probably about ¾ of the way there.

In front of the church, were the combat boots. On the side of the church, were a bunch of civilian shoes, meant to represent the civilians who had died in the war. Behind the shoes was a large placard, about 4 feet high by 12 feet long with the names of Iraqis who had died during the war. It also showed how they died: “cluster bombs,” “coalition air strike,” “Apache helicopter attack.,” You get the idea. I looked around. Nowhere was there a list of the Iraqi civilians who were killed by the insurgents and terrorists. It just wasn’t there. What did that tell me? This is a Blame America First group.

I asked the lady “where is the board with all of the names of the Iraqis who were killed while Saddam was in power?” She answered by asking “Are you here to look or to argue?” I just replied I thought it was a valid question and that their position would have been more consistent. Their problem, is just when Americans kill people. Not when people kill people. And there is NO moral consistency to this. I might have respect for them as just misguided fools if they lamented ALL of the innocents killed during war.

She had no response and it just got me riled up. I walked off before I got disrespectful because here is what I feel and have thought for a while now. These anti-war people (most of them) don’t give a flying shit about military members. They are the same freaks and traitors who protested the Vietnam war and they hated the military then and did everything they could to undermine moral and their mission. My belief is the ONLY reason they feign caring about the troops these days is because it is politically expedient. They know average Americans wouldn’t listen to them as soon as they heard their true feelings. There are exceptions to this, of course, but I feel the leadership feels this way and it wouldn’t take much to get their lemming followers in a frenzy about it.

Oh yeah, I am really f’ing sick of the dumb bastards who portray military members as victims. It’s a *volunteer military*. Read that again. *Every* member knows upon joining what the risks are. These are adults, old enough to make their own decisions. I’m tired of hearing them referred to as children and people asking “would you send your child to die in Iraq?” (thank you Michael Moore) Children are not going to Iraq to die. Adults are. They’ve made the choice to join and have served honorably and many have paid the ultimate price. You dishonor them when you paint them as victims of anyone but the people who actually killed them. They are soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines and we get paid to die if it comes to that. Otherwise, what the F are we supposed to be here for?

These anti-war fools(useful idiots as the communists use to refer to them as) are the same people who dishonored, trashed and smeared military members in the past and if it were still acceptable today, they would. They, themselves, are trash, in my opinion.

Just take the whole Iraq issue out of this. The stupid bastards would be living in a world dominated by evil if it weren’t for the men and women who choose to stand up against evil. These stupid bastards only have the right to do their little exhibit because the military member they are portraying as a victim stood up and fought for their country, their family and their friends.

I’m sick of these pathetic pieces of shit. They undermine the morale of the troops and give aid and comfort to the enemy. The enemy sees division in us and, to them, it shows weakness. Protest before the war. Once the war starts, you root for the good guys to kill all the bad guys and come home when it is over. This bullshit only prolongs things. To these people, save your f’ing pity for me and other military members. Put your efforts into sending care packages and other items that will increase morale. Give money to a program to support the troops families while they are deployed. If you know the family of a deployed member, be there for them. Support them in any way they need. Just be there. If you are already doing these things, then thank you. If you aren’t, start.

For my birthday, My sis, Amy and my parents gave to such an organization. I’ll track down the information soon and pass it on.

And to close, I think my sister is a good example of a good balance. She doesn’t like war (well, who doesn’t?) and, as far as I know, doesn’t support this one. But she’s supportive of her cousin’s husband who was deployed during the actual war and is supportive of her brother and when he is deployed (later this year but not to Iraq)). She understands the best way for this to get over with, is to kill the bad guys and bring the good guys home. She has an understanding that good men must fight bad men. She understands what Edmund Burke meant when he said “All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing.”

Heather, if I’ve misrepresented your feelings on this, feel free to correct me.

Comments! (Warning, LONG)

A couple weeks ago, I commented on President Bush’s speech at the RNC. I neglected to note a late comment Amy made. They were good and I’ll address them now. But first, I just want to say, that I enjoy the comments, especially when they differ from mine and challenge my own views. The following gets a tad harsh at the end but please understand, that harshness is reserved for John Kerry, NOT for Amy. She asked a question and I answered it.

Also, be sure to tune in tomorrow. I’m really fired up over something that happened at lunch. I’m trying to cool down but I’ll still be spitting nails over it tomorrow, I’m sure. It’s gonna be Ann Coulter harsh and a side of me many of you haven’t seen before. I’ve just been pushed over the edge on an issue and can’t suppress my true feelings on it anymore.

Amy says:

Here is what I'm scared about--re-electing the unqualified disaster that led us into two wars without really planning ahead for either one. Hussein never had any strong Al-Qaida ties. Iraq was not a front for the war on terror until we went in there. And we've just reshuffled the warlords in Afghanistan. How many more wars are we going to get dragged into by this administration?


Valid questions that I should be able to answer with some facts.

First, Hussein never had any strong Al Qaeda ties. I suppose strong is probably a qualifier statement but lets use the 9-11 report, which many have used to cite that there were no ties. It only found that there were no ties in regards to the attacks on Sept 11th.

You can find the 9-11 report here.

On page 78 you can read about Bin Laden re-forming a terrorist organization called Ansar al Islam and that there are indications that the Hussein Regime aided this group in its efforts against the Kurds in N. Iraq. On the same page, Bin Laden himself met w/ a senior Iraqi intelligence agent.

On page 83, it talks about Bin Laden making an effort to engage Hussein in talks. Hussein rebuffed him changed his mind in mid 1998: “…Al Qaeda members reportedly went to Iraq to meet with Iraqi intelligence. In July, an Iraqi delegation traveled to Afghanistan to meet first with the Taliban and then with Bin Laden.” Sources repotred that one, or perhaps both, of these meetings was apparently arranged through Bin Laden’s Egyptian deputy, Zawahiri, who had ties of his to the Iraqis.”

Then on page 145: On November 4, 1998, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York unsealed its indictment of Bin Laden, charging him with conspiracy to attack U.S. defense installations….Al Qaeda had reached an understanding with the government of Iraq that Al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the Government of Iraq.” It does go on to say that part of the indictment was dropped at a later time.

That’s just doing a simple word search in that report.

And Iraq was harboring terrorists before the war. Zawahiri was there before the war along with others. But just throwing all of that away, I think it was the right idea to go in regardless of any ties to Al Qaeda. But we won’t argue about whether or not it’s gone well in the past year because I think our opinions, while not identical, will be close.

She also comments on Kerry:

Kerry actually was a soldier, and risked his life, but Bush fell back on his privilege and escaped danger in Vietnam. Why is it that Bush is the one who gets credit for understanding the sacrifices that a soldier makes? This is very puzzling to me.

---

They both used privilege to avoid service. Kerry just ran out of opportunities. He filed for multiple deferments. Then he volunteered for Swift Boat duty, probably for 2 reasons. JFK did it, and at the time, it was one of the least dangerous jobs there was. It wasn’t until after he joined up the Naval reserves, that the role of the Swift Boats was changed to shut down smuggling and shipping on the waterways. He did not volunteer for anything more dangerous than just plain military duty. Now, he did serve in dangerous duty and if his actions were truly heroic, deserves credit for it. But he didn’t volunteer for it so let’s not romanticize it too much. And I’ll answer the rest of the question below.

Amy writes:

I think maybe part of the issue could be that Kerry came back after the war and protested it. But who knows better than someone who was there whether there were human rights abuses going on?


It wasn’t just that he protested it, surely within his rights and probably a noble endeavor. Though that is a different discussion that will probably be addressed tomorrow. It’s what Kerry said when he got back. He lied before the Senate about witnessing and COMMITTING horrible atrocities. The entire Winter Soldier saga has been disproved time and again. He met with the N. Vietnamese gov’t in France after he got back. He was part of the VVAW(Vietnam Vets against War), a radical organization.

He came back and protested the war, not on behalf of the troops, but to dishonor them and smear them. Many in captivity recall hearing his false testimony being used against them during their capture and torture.

Kerry is despised by most in the military because when he came back, he attempted to smear it and dishonor those who served. And he did for many years because the media was a willing accomplice. I might grant him a pass on it if he’d admit that he was young, made mistakes and lied. Even Jane Fonda did that much. But he hasn’t and has gone so far as to say that he’s proud of it. He’s a vile despicable son of a bitch.

The truth is, and trust me, there will be more on this tomorrow, the protesters at the time didn’t give a shit about the military members. The military was just a bunch of babykillers to the protesters. The protesters were predominantly un-American, funded by many communist and socialist organizations with ties to the Soviets.

I’ll say it again. John Kerry is a vile and despicable son of a bitch. He’s certainly entitled to his opinions and his right to share them. But please don’t suggest that he should garner more respect than he does, just because he wore the uniform for 4 months in combat. If that’s all he did., then he would have my respect. But he pissed on, disrespected and dishonored anyone one else who has ever worn the uniform, including me, my father, my grandfathers and many of my other relatives and friends, with his actions.

That is why I not only like the current President more than I do John Kerry, it is why most military members do. Hell, we’d like President Bush more even if he had never served whatsoever or even seen anyone in a uniform.

Tune in tomorrow for my nastiest rant ever. But put on your thick skin if you lean to the left poltically.

The Burger King...

The Burger King writes:

I am shocked and appalled that you would describe my showing up in bed with another guy and handing him one of our delightful new breakfast sandwiches as "creepy."

I would stop by your place to show you how yummy our new sandwiches are....but, since your version of our lovely Burger King phrase "Have it your way" includes my getting wailed on unendingly with a baseball bat until my complete paralysis, I shall bypass your bedroom on my "Wake up with the Burger King and his Delightful Breakfast Sandwiches" World Tour 2k4.

Love always,

The Burger King
-------

Dear Burger King,

Thank your for your response and for posting it here and not delivering it to my home. A wise choice for your own safety. A few suggestions:

1. If you consider “magically” appearing in a strange man’s bedroom to give him a “delightful new breakfast sandwich” a worthwhile service, then you don’t watch enough beer commercials. The correct way to do it, is to have a bikini-wearing woman in the bed with perfect hair, makeup and body giving him a cheeseburger and a beer. And then she gets up to wash the truck and clean my apartment.

2. The fact that you showed up in a guy’s bed and not a woman’s, makes me wonder about some homo-erotic undertones your corporation is trying to send out. Your evil brain waves will not penetrate my tin foil hat.

3. Is there a Burger Queen? Just curious. We never see or hear about her.

4. If you sent Natalie Portman, Logan Tom or Kerri Walsh in your place, I’d eat whatever disgusting rat-meat sandwich you sent with them. Just send Tabasco sauce with them. Don’t worry, it’d be for the sandwich.

Looking forward to wiping that plastic smile off your face with my baseball bat,

Eric Moyer

Beating the Burger King

Is anybody else creeped out by the new Burger King commercial? This guy wakes up in bed and the “Burger King” is in bed next to him. It’s some guy dressed up in a red and gold medieval outfit with a plastic looking head. He’s laying in bed next to him! And the mask is creepy since is has only a half-smile on it. Anway, he hands this guy some breakfast sandwich. In the background there is more creepy music. The guy eats this thing and smiles and all is well.

Who green lights these things? It reminds me of an old SNL skit. It was a game show and it was about advertising campaigns, I think. Anyway, the character played by Adam Sandler would always reply “Who were the ad wizards who came up with this one?!?!”

That’s what this campaign makes me think of. It’s like those disturbing battery commercials from about 10 years ago where all of the people were made up to look like plastic toys. Just too weird.

People actually sat in an office and said "Hey, I think it will make people buy more of our breakfast crap if we show some creepy stranger in the bed w/ another dude and he hands him a breakfast sandwich." And someone else must have said "Wow, that's a great idea!"

Maybe they are going for a gay angle here by showing a couple dudes in bed together but I'm not sure there is a gay guy who'd be happy to wake up next to this freak dressed up like a mutant Burger King.

That and blatantly targeting your product to the gay community is quite likely to turn off a good segment of your customers.

And as a final note, if that Burger King dude was in my bed, I’d beat him so bad with a baseball bat, he’d consider himself lucky only to be paralyzed.

Awww Nuts

And that isn't the expression I really want to use. It certainly isn't the language that popped up in my head after reading this. This cinches I won't be voting Libertarian this year.

I don't have a problem with questioning our own foreign policy. A whole bunch of it should be questioned. But I can't put into clean words how angry I get at the Blame America First Crowd. Especially when the party that I think I have the most in common with falls under that umbrella.

Where are the sane people anymore? Thanks to James Taranto and The Best of the Web for pointing this one out

*White* Water? Even the water is prejudiced

I went white water rafting, for the first time, with some friends this past weekend. We drove down to West Virginia after church on Sunday, rafted on Monday and drove back that night.

We really had a good time. A few thoughts though:

1. When someone says “We have a cabin,” it’s probably best not to make any assumptions of what that “cabin” might look like. We got there Sunday night and my dad’s tool shed when we lived in Las Vegas had more cubic feet. It was probably about 8x12x10. And we fit 8 people in there. And actually, we fit 8 fairly comfortably. It was surprising. Anyway, it wasn’t a cabin. It was a shed.

2. The rafting wasn’t as rough as I expected. We’d go through about 100 yards of rapids and then it would be calm for about 200 yards. It was still fun but I’d expected from pictures and videos I’d seen, that the rapids would be near constant.

3. If you’re going to play a game of 20 questions, play it right. We decided that someone would choose a celebrity and we would ask 20 questions to try to guess who it was. Jesse chose a person and from what I can recall, through questions, we figured out that it was a fairly young, non-white actor who’d been in both TV (but not a sitcom) and movies in a supporting role. He’d been in action films but no comedies that Jesse could think of. After about an hour of driving and guessing and about 35 minutes of dinner, we finally gave up. Who was it? LeVar Burton. Levar Freakin’ Burton. How obscure is that? I was the only person who even knew who he was. Jesse doesn’t get to pick anymore.

Here is where we went. There is a photo-tour on the right. It shows some of the areas we went through.

RNC Convention

A month or two ago, I said I wasn’t voting for George W. Bush this time around. I gave the reasoning here and don’t feel like getting into it again. If you want to read it, here it is.

Let me tell you why I voted for him the first time. He came across to me as a sincere, honest man. One who shared many of my same beliefs, though not all.

After the attacks on Sept 11(let’s not call them “events or trajedies,” ok?), I saw a deeper side of him, as many of us did. I saw a man who truly did feel the pain that America felt at the time. I saw man who risked his own safety by showing up at ground zero a few days later. Keep in mind, the Secret Service had no way to secure that area at the time. And during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, I saw a man who valued the US Military highly. Very highly. I’ve seen him get choked up, talking about the sacrifices he’s asked them to make. He understands the sacrifices he’s asked them to make on behalf of the country. He knows, because of his orders, some will not come home. Some children are losing fathers (in some cases daughters), parents are losing sons, sisters are losing brothers and many are losing friends. He understands that. He risked his own safety to be there for Thanksgiving. He’s conveyed his message to the troops. And we LOVE him for it. We do.

I’d already decided to vote for the Libertarian before President Bush’s speech last night. I wasn’t even planning on watching the speech. Most of those speeches are boring and predictable. If there was something special, I could always watch it on www.gop.com. I did that with Zel Miller’s speech. I suggest you do, too, if you missed it.

But there I was getting into bed and it was on, so I left it on. The beginning and middle were pretty much standard fare. Then the President started speaking about the sacrifices made by firemen, cops and the military during and after Sept 11th:

"These four years have brought moments I could not foresee and will not forget. I have tried to comfort Americans who lost the most on Sept. 11th -- people who showed me a picture or told me a story, so I would know how much was taken from them. I have learned first-hand that ordering Americans into battle is the hardest decision, even when it is right. I have returned the salute of wounded soldiers, some with a very tough road ahead, who say they were just doing their job. I've held the children of the fallen, who are told their dad or mom is a hero, but would rather just have their dad or mom. And I have met with parents and wives and husbands who have received a folded flag, and said a final goodbye to a soldier they loved. I am awed that so many have used those meetings to say that I am in their prayers -- to offer encouragement to me. Where does strength like that come from? How can people so burdened with sorrow also feel such pride? It is because they know their loved one was last seen doing good. Because they know that liberty was precious to the one they lost. And in those military families, I have seen the character of a great nation: decent, and idealistic, and strong."

As he spoke of the folded flags, his eyes got glassy and he choked up. This is a man who understands the sacrifices of the men in uniform that he has ordered into war. I can’t explain how much this means to the men he has ordered. But if you want to know, just ask one.

Tonight, President Bush tossed my vote back into the undecided category and I’m struggling with it. I don’t vote on emotion. And my logical side says he shouldn’t get my vote. But there are two other issues:

1. There is no other issue more important in this campaign than the War on Terror. None. And the idea of Senator Kerry running it should scare the bejeezus out of everyone.

2. This man values the military. Sure, he didn’t serve in Vietnam (as his reprehensible opponent likes to point out) but at least he values the men who do serve. This President never would have come back and slandered his “band of brothers” by lying and accusing them of war crimes. Kerry is a despicable man. President Bush, for all of his faults, values me and the men I serve with and the sacrifices they make.

These next 60 days are going to be interesting. But a couple of predictions:

1. This election won't be close. Barring a scandal in the Bush White House, President Bush will win re-election by a margin close to his father's over Dukakis.

2. Kerry will continue to implode and the crazy lefties who support him will follow that lead. These people are off the deep end and they're going t get worse. Which is actually good news for the President. Most of America needs to see how far left and out of touch that wing of the Democratic Party is.

3. President Bush will trounce him in the debates. Not because he's necessarily smarter and a better speaker. I don't know about the former but the latter is definitely in Kerry's favor. Who would you rather sit and have a beer with? That's important in the debates because they are all about presentation. I could sit all day and hang out w/ the President. 5 minutes around Kerry would have me wanting to kick him in the nuts or shoot myself in the head.

Kerry really is a *terrible* candidate. But it will be run to watch him destroy himself. Howard Dean would have been more fun.

I'm not as dumb as you look

While waiting in front of my building for a friend to pick me up for lunch, a guy walked past me. He looked like he hadn't shaved in a few days or washed, for that matter. He was wearing a t-shirt, sleeves cut off and down both of his arms, as far as his wrist were multiple tattoos, including one of a naked woman and another of a dragon. That was just on his left side.

His shirt read "I'm not as dumb as you look."

If his shirt is right(and how could it not be?) I must be one stupid looking dude.

Today

Well, my last post sure seems to have gotten some attention as more than 1 woman has taken exception with it.

Let me explain just a bit:

1. High maintenance women aren't bad. They just aren't right for certain types of guys. The independent ones who like their space. Hence what I wrote before the link.

2. If you took exception to it, maybe it struck close to home?

3. It's really not a big deal.

Have a great day!