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 April 2009

A Very Cool Birthday Party

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I stumbled onto Movies by Kids and thought that it was pretty damn cool. Here is a clip from their website about what they do.

MOVIES BY KIDS is a creative program designed for teaching young students the exciting process of movie making and animation. This unique “Hand’s On” program offers children the opportunity to conceive, write, produce and direct their own, animated movies, live action shorts and special effects segments in one of our in school, after school, summer camp programs.

Too bad that they don’t have something for the big kids like me. Wonder if they’d do something special for a 40th birthday party. Hmm….

Taxday Tea Party Protest

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Is it just coincidence that as I began to write this post Fortunate Son started playing on iTunes. It fits my mood because I am angry at the finger pointers from both parties.

Some folks are born made to wave the flag,
Ooh, they’re red, white and blue.
And when the band plays hail to the chief,
Ooh, they point the cannon at you, lord,

It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no senators son, son.
It ain’t me, it ain’t me; I ain’t no fortunate one, no,

Yeah!
Some folks are born silver spoon in hand,
Lord, dont they help themselves, oh.
But when the taxman comes to the door,
Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale, yes,

I have a long list of things that make me angry. I am angry about government waste. I am angry about the bailout, but let me be clear about my anger. I am angry at all parties. I am angry about the deregulation and lack of oversight that led to this place. I am angry about the cost of covering the huge mistakes and mismanagement of others.

I am angry about the idiotic remarks of those who take advantage of the rights/privileges they are afforded by living here and do not give back. I am angry because the finger pointers waste my time, my energy and my tax dollars by spewing out rhetoric about how bad the other side is.

Listen you ignorant monkeys, you are part of something bigger and greater than yourself. We pay taxes because it provides a government that helps to see that we have a functional infrastructure.

It pays for the roads that are used by truck drivers to deliver food to the groceries stores.
It pays for research for science that is used to find cures for cancer, for Parkinsons and other terminal illnesses.
It pays for a military that protects us from those who would harm us, be they pirates or others.
It pays so that our children can receive an education.

Damn, it wears me out reading so much garbage across the net. The blithering idiots who tell us that socialism is bad. Do you even understand what it is. Do you know what you are talking about or are you just repeating the crap that someone else spoon fed you.

The buffoons who are naive enough to believe that all people will be nice. George Will provides a good example in his latest column in Newsweek.

“The current president’s U.N. ambassador, Susan Rice, was on Sunday television recently explaining why she thinks Iran, now several decades into its pursuit of nuclear weapons and close to consummation, might succumb to the siren song of sweet reason and retreat from success. Doing so, she said, would enable Iran “to be a responsible member of the international community”—perhaps not the highest priority for a regime that denies the Holocaust happened, and vows to complete it—and “enter the community of nations.” Otherwise Iran will face “the full force of the international community.”

Rice really thinks there is a community out there. To believe that is to believe, as liberals do, that harmony is humanity’s natural condition, so discord is a remediable defect in arrangements.”

I became an independent because I grew disenchanted with the labels and the “restrictions” that came with them. My issue is not with liberals or conservatives. My issue is with those that are so partisan they are unable to work with the other side. Their sole goal is to do whatever they can to thwart the other.

That is detrimental to all of us. So you’ll understand if I am less than enamored by the tea party protests. All that noise, we’ll see if they actually manage to do more than shout out cute slogans.

The Best Clothing You’ll Ever Own

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The hard working team here at The Shack is constantly in search of products that you can use to make your life easier. Every day without fail our crack team scours the world to locate that one item that will add value to your day and improve the quality of your life.

Many of you may remember the pure joy and pleasure that my favorite towel has brought me.

Have I ever told you how relaxing it is to wear it. My entire being is filled with a sense of peace and harmony.

And have I mentioned how durable it is.

Hundreds of washes later it is as soft as ever and that is saying something, it is not easy being green.

It is indeed a quality product.

I don’t want to break my arm patting myself on the back, but I have a keen eye for fashion. And it is that keen eye that is responsible for locating the next item that I am about to show you.
In laymen’s terms we call it a wearable sleeping bag, far superior to that Snuggie rag.

But in reality it is an exceptional outfit that you can wear for business or casual events. It is highly functional and provides extreme utility. If you are one of the poor shlubs who is forced to live in a colder climate this is the kind of clothing you need.

Known as the Lippi Selk Bag it is available in a variety of colors and will keep you warm in semi-frigid temperatures. Please note the helpful safety tip from the FAQs:
What About Going To The Toilet? Is There A Fly?No. When visiting the toliet the Selk’Bag should be unzipped and pulled down.
Since I know that not everyone reads everything twice let me reiterate the importance of unzipping your bag prior to relieving yourself. The last thing that you want to do is have to deal with the humiliation of explaining to your mom or dry cleaner that you forgot how to use a zipper.
For those who have missed out on past reviews of useful products here is a list of links that you might find to be useful.

Columbine: Ten Years Later

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USA Today has an interesting retrospective about the terrible school shooting at Columbine High School.

In the aftermath I have heard any number of explanations for why these two monsters acted as they did. A number of them suggested that bullying might have been among the primary reasons for their actions.

That has always troubled me. I don’t pretend to have a degree in psychology or to be any sort of expert in the field of mental health. I can understand to an extent how if someone was being bullied that they might want to strike back at the person(s) who were doing this. But this goes far beyond that.

Take a look at this excerpt from the article:

What’s now beyond dispute — largely from the killers’ journals, which have been released over the past few years, is this: Harris and Klebold killed 13 and wounded 24, but they had hoped to kill thousands.

The pair planned the attacks for more than a year, building 100 bombs and persuading friends to buy them guns. Just after 11 a.m. on April 20, they lugged a pair of duffel bags containing propane-tank bombs into Columbine’s crowded cafeteria and another into the kitchen, then stepped outside and waited.

Had the bombs exploded, they’d have killed virtually everyone eating lunch and brought the school’s second-story library down atop the cafeteria, police say. Armed with a pistol, a rifle and two sawed-off shotguns, the pair planned to pick off survivors fleeing the carnage.

As a last terrorist act, a pair of gasoline bombs planted in Harris’ Honda and Klebold’s BMW had been rigged apparently to kill police, rescue teams, journalists and parents who rushed to the school — long after the pair expected they would be dead.

The pair had parked the cars about 100 yards apart in the student lot. The bombs didn’t go off.

Read a bit further on and you see that money limited their ability to murder. A lack of finances helped to save lives.

But if we go back to the subject of bullying what bothers me is that I have a hard time accepting that bullying pushed them so far over the edge that they would be willing to murder so many who had nothing to do with them.

They were sick individuals who took a cowards way out and by that I refer to all of their actions that day, from start to finish.