The JackB

"When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'." Groucho Marx

Archives for February 2009

Hitler Had Bad Gas

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I first came across the story about Hitler’s flatulence problem in this post here. YNET expands upon it here:

A document discovered in Britain more than 60 years after it had been produced claims that Adolf Hitler, the late fuehrer of Nazi Germany, had horrible table manners and chronic intestinal gas.

The UK’s Daily Telegraph reported Tuesday that the document, currently up for auction in Britain, says the Nazi dictator would bite his nails and twist his moustache incessantly during mealtimes, but that he truly believed that he was the “greatest military genius of all time,” as Josef Goebbels had written of him.

The document consists of an interview with a Nazi official held by a British agent, and is dated three days after the fuehrer’s death. Its heading orders the document to be destroyed within 48 hours, but the British agent kept them in his home for over sixty years, where they were discovered before the house was sold.

The final days of Hitler’s life are recorded in vast detail in the interview and his reported homosexual inclinations are mentioned, as well as his overt fondness for Rudolph Hess. He is also said to have fraternized with women in a manner characterized by “passive masochism”.

The Nazi official interviewed said he believes Hitler was crazy, basing his opinion on at least 30 dinners the two shared. In his journal the official is said to have written, “Hitler eats rapidly, mechanically, for him food is merely an indispensable means of subsistence.”

It is too bad that these issues didn’t completely cripple him. The world would have been a better place.

Stop Breaking My Sprinklers

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I am relatively certain that my gardener is not reading my blog, but on the off chance that he is I’d like to ask him to stop breaking my sprinklers. Not only does it cost me money to buy replacement speakers it costs time.

And that my friends irritates the hell out of me. My time is far too valuable to have to spend on repairing and replacing sprinkler heads each week. If he keeps this up I may break down and buy a lawnmower and he’ll be out of a job.

Strange Links

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I used to rely upon Blogrolling.com to display my reading list. It was a work in progress that was updated on a regular basis. At least until Blogrolling.com was hacked and removed the ability to edit the blogroll.

For a while I stood pat and waited to see if they’d restore the editing function. But in time I grew impatient and decided to switch to Blogger’s “Blog list.” It made sense to do so I want the ability to add/subtract blogs/news sites without any delay.

Anyhoo, I have noticed that some of my posts are now showing up as links to posts of other bloggers on the list. However, I haven’t linked to them within the body of the bost. So there must be something in the code that is causing this to happen.

Kind of odd, but I suppose that there are worse things.

Explaining My Judaism

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The Blues Brothers Are On a Mission From God.

I keep writing and rewriting the opening paragraph of this post. I don’t like the title. I hate it. It sounds ridiculous and idiotic and it sets a poor tone, but for now it will do.

Sometimes I’d like my religious beliefs to be based solely upon critical reasoning and logical thought. It’d be really nice and exceptionally convenient if they fit together like a cool set of legos. I’d start by providing you with an outline and then follow up with sections that built upon each other.

It would be like a pyramid with a wide base that served as a foundation and then blocks upon blocks until it reached the narrow top. And the best part would be that it would be easy to simple to understand. You’d look at the bottom and by the time you reached the top you’d have a clear understanding of why I believe what I believe.

Or maybe what I am really saying is that I’d like that. I’d like to be able to just whip out an explanation that didn’t leave me asking questions or shaking my head because some things just didn’t make sense.

But the thing is that when we are dealing with matters of faith then we are forced to take positions that require accepting that faith is sometimes all we have. It is hard to do and it makes for all sorts of interesting situations and compromises.

Faith is what let’s me accept some things and question others. To some people I am sure that this sounds ridiculous. One could easily argue that most of us are brainwashed as children to accept a particular religion as being the truth. From that perspective we could also argue that those who convert as adults deserve special consideration because they made a choice to believe, it wasn’t just spoonfed to them.

But that is a different story for a different time.

When I think about faith I think about a number of things. I think about love. When someone says that she loves me do I simply accept her word or do I require her to prove it. And if I require her to prove it, what do I need for proof.

Must she bear my children or would it be enough to have sex with me. Does she need to live with me and take care of me to prove it, or could it be proven by words.

Now all that might sound ridiculous, but to me it is tied into faith. When she says that she loves me I can take her word and accept it to be the truth or I can doubt it.

Ultimately I make my decision based upon a couple of factors, but faith is the primary mover. It is a bit disconcerting to make decisions that way, but sometimes it is all you have.

Ok, is it just me or is this post a prime example of gibberish and blather.

Political Posts Generate More Traffic

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Political posts typically generate more traffic than the personal ones. I find that to be kind of odd. Sure, the Shmata Queen has always told me that I am the smartest and best looking man she has ever known.

It is a tactic that she has used upon occasion to try and prevent me from making fun of the midwest, especially the land of the burning river where she once lived. I must admit that it does get old trashing the people who went to heights just as it gets old to trash those who attended New Trier or Niles West.

But really, I find it curious and strangely satisfying to know that some people choose to enter this humble domicile to hear what I have to say about political matters. I like to think that people come here because I provide superior content and and insight that you can’t find anywhere else. Upon occasion that may happen, but really is what I write that different from the five million other bloggers out there.

I’ll grant that it happens sometimes, but not as frequent as I might like.

I am clearly biased, but I think that the best posts here are those that are of a more personal nature. But the stat counters clearly differ, at least from a traffic perspective.

Maybe I need to consider changing the focus of this place. We could change the name to Paul’s Pleasure Palace Where Politics are Plesantly Porked. That was totally ridiculous, but I kind of like the way that it sounded.

Anyhoo, I like the current format of being able to cover whatever, whenever, however.