24 posts from 2007

This would be funny if it weren't so true.....

Scenario: Jack goes  quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun  rack.
1957 - Vice   Principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car and gets his   shotgun to show Jack.
2007 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack   hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in   for traumatized students and teachers.  
 
Scenario:  Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after school.
1957 - Crowd  gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.
2007 -  Police called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them with  assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it.  

Scenario:  Jeffrey won't be still in class, disrupts other  students.
1957 - Jeffrey  sent to office and given a good paddling by the Principal. Returns to class,  sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2007 - Jeffrey given huge  doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. School gets extra money  from state because Jeffrey has a disability.  

Scenario:  Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping  with his belt.
1957 - Billy  is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a  successful businessman.
2007 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse.  Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang.  Billy's sister tells State psychologist tells that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison.  Billy's mom has affair with psychologist.  

Scenario:  Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to  school.
1957 - Mark  shares aspirin with Principal out on the smoking dock.
2007 - Police  called, Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs and weapons.  

Scenario:  Pedro fails high school English.
1957 - Pedro  goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college.
2007 - Pedro's  cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining  that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and Pedro's English teacher.  English banned from core curriculum.   Pedro given diploma anyway but ends  up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak  English.  

Scenario:  Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from 4th of July, puts them in a  model airplane paint bottle, blows up a red ant bed.
1957 - Ants  die.
2007 - BATF, Homeland Security, FBI called. Johnny charged with  domestic terrorism, FBI investigates parents, siblings removed from home,  computers confiscated, Johnny's Dad goes on a terror watch list and is never  allowed to fly again.  

Scenario:  Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found  crying by his teacher, Mary.  Mary hugs him to comfort  him.
1957 - In a  short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.
2007 - Mary is accused  of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State  Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of   therapy.

The bastards cut off coverage of the Dallas Cowboys game today because it was to "one-sided".  I left them a comment and the chicken shits haven't bothered to reply yet and probably won't because they don't have the balls to face up to me.  To make matters worse the "game" they choose to show was the Green Bay Fudge-Packers. 

Well for those that have been wondering about my expereince with switching, it is going great. 

In short I love my Mac. For those who don't know I decieded back in May to switch from a Windows PC to a Mac as my primary system.  In the process and after talking about it so much one of my co-workers has now switched as well.  Which makes me very happy.

The final piece for me to complete the switch is to convert all of my Outlook data over to something on the Mac.  There is a rather inexpensive program that can do it but, I am in pursuit of no cost method.  So in the mean time I am still using my PC as the final repository for mail.  However I pull and read most of my mail on the Mac.  Related to this issue I am making more and more use of web based email services.  A related decsion is do I use Mail.app or Mozilla Thunderbird.  More on that another time.

Before I forget again for the other switchers out there I found a great site to help with the transition.  It is "My first Mac".  A great resource for all of those questions you before and after your purchase.

Oh by the way, the picture in profile was taken with the built in i-Sight cam.

This song is great and really hits home.  Jonathan Coulton is very talented and creative.  There is a great interview with him over at The Merlin Show" podcast.  In the meantime enjoy this mash-up and check out some of the others this one is my favorite.

I am sick an tired of illegal immigrants thinking they can run this country. Since when did non Americans get the right to protest against our government in our homeland.  Round them up and send them home if they do.  No due process or anything. Cheapest and quickest way home is all they should get.

I have no objection to people emigrating to our country because, that is what has given us the rich diversity we now enjoy.

There are only three things I ask of those that come here:

1. Come into this country legally, don't sneak in then scream about being given a break to stay.
   
2. Speak ENGLISH only, you are now an American and nothing else.  Not a ???????-American.
   
3. Don't form separate communities, assimilate in and embrace the values of those that are already here.

My sincere hope is that this stupid boycott they are staging in Prince William County, Virginia blows up in their face as it should.  Should something happen like that around here I will go out of my way to patronize any businesses that any illegal wants boycotted.  I would even venture to go into debt to show support for the businesses in support of their stand against illegals.

My ancestors came to this country in the early 1800's from non-English speaking countries but they adapted and thrived from what I have been able to ascertain.  There is no difference between then and now.

Well the next to last weekend of summer.  We mowed the entire yard for the first time in six weeks.  Our recent rains have started the yard growing again but, if it doesn't keep up it will dry up again.

This is also the last weekend before school starts so we tried to spend some QT with the kids.  The heat kept us inside for the most part.

Oh well it is getting late and the battery is about to go so I guess I had better go first,  Have a safe week and keep an eye for the school buses.

Wow! where has the day gone.  I didn't go into the office today because we were having flooring installed.  It went OK they are claiming that the molding was to low so that made the installation tougher and not as neat of a job as they would have liked.

Doesn't look bad they have some places to trim and they are going to do the stairs tomorrow.  Have to wait and see how that turns out before I pass final judgement.

The big plus is that I got to spend the day with my Mac while they worked, tell me that isn't geeky.  Still loving my MacBook and it is the most awesome system I have owned to date.  The only problem now is that I want a desktop Mac.  Like maybe the 20" iMac model.  I would settle for a mini if I knew for sure the future of the box.

Oh well it is late and I need to get some sleep.

Well I finally made the leap over to Mac.  It is the best thing I have ever done.  I am composing this post on the new MacBook.  I had resisted for a long time thinking all of the hype was just a bunch of FUD.  But the more I looked into it the more the peel came of of the onion and the light got brighter.