« March 2005 | Main | May 2005 »
Saturday Afternoon 'Spit Take'
A parade in Saigon (Ho Chi Mihn City) Saturday, including a salute to supermarkets, marked the 30th anniversary of the fall of Saigon...
Caption: Hello my name is Comrade France Nyguyen, and my father and grandfather fought a bloodthirsty horrific war that killed millions of my countrymen so as to throw out the imperialist robber baron capitalist blood sucking stooges so I could be in this parade celebrating crass mercantilism and consumer goods. Life is funny sometimes, isnt it comrade? Hey have I told you about my Herbalife business? Have you heard of 'multi level marketing', well....
So What was it that the Communists were fighting for if today they have a parade to celebrate SHOPPING? They used to have parades to celebrate cutting sugar cane, now its SHOPPING?as the kids say, WTF?
You know, I'm sorry, but I missed that stanza in the 'internationale' that covered the indivuduals desire for mercantile and consumer goods for the new 'Soviet man'. Maybe they meant to include the lyrics ,but they couldn't figure out how make it rhyme...
Arise ye workers from your slumbers Tommorow is white flower day at Macys...
Arise ye prisoners of want
For reason in revolt now thunders
And at last ends the age of cant. 'cause yes you can with KMart 'Layaway special' plans
Away with all your superstitions
Servile masses arise, arise
We'll change henceforth the old tradition
And spurn the dust to win the prize. 'cause 'Everyones a winner' at the Grand Forks Mall...
So comrades, come rally (at the wal-mart with double off coupons)
And the last fight let us face
The Internationale unites the human race. With a desire for those delicious little nibbles they serve on saturdays to tempt you to buy more dessert items in the frozen food section of Fred Meyer
So comrades, come rally
And the last fight let us face
The Internationale unites the human race.
Yeah, ok I can see why they left the alternate lyrics out, but damn, you'd think that someone would have told everyone that Marx and Engles were really working for a world where everyman could afforda DVD player for far less than the cost of an average dinner date.
Who would've thought that the most effective weapon the west had to end the slavery of socialism would be just the idea of a full shopping cart. Its a pretty powerful icon if you think about it.
Posted @ April 30, 2005 02:54 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (3)
Better....
I'm back and functioning. I have to catch up on things, I've got a quite a backlog on posts.
For now, go "chew" on these items:
1) Solar Death Ray? Oh sure, we got one right here.
2) Listen, I know "oil is evil" and all that, but when the company you are buying gas from moves its headquarters to Havana, you know what to do dont you? Check this out and act accordingly.
A big hat tip to the great "Babalu Blog"
I've got a whole raft of stuff for work and email to clear first, and after that posts will be a'flyin so bear with me...
Posted @ April 28, 2005 10:14 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (1)
Whereabouts...
I'm still recovering from the acts of 'Dental Cruelty' on Monday and as a result I'm having a hell of time concetrating. I'll be back in form just as soon as the swelling goes away and I can stop taking handfuls of advil every 2 hours.
Posted @ April 27, 2005 07:28 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
Michael O'Donohue - How to Write Good
Michael O'Donohue -1981
Favorite Quote: "Television is just like a lava lamp with only slightly better audio"
Michael O'Donohue Saturday Night Live and National Lampoon writer writes this classic piece entitled "How to write good". Feel free to pass the link the Maureen Dowd...
Excerpt:
"A long time ago, when I was just starting out, I had the good fortune to meet the great Willa Cather. With all the audacity of youth, I asked her what advice she would give the would-be-writer and she replied:
"My advice to the would-be-writer is that he start slowly, writing short undemanding things, things such as telegrams, flip-books, crank letters, signature scarves, spot quizzes, capsule summaries, fortune cookies and errata. Then, when he feels he's ready, move up to the more challenging items such as mandates, objective correlatives, passion plays, pointless diatribes, minor classics, manifestos, mezzotints, oxymora, exposes, broadsides, and papal bulls".
Posted @ April 26, 2005 03:03 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (1)
Zarqawi Eludes Capture; Computer Discovered
From abcnews.com
Iraq's Most Wanted Fugitive on the Run After Leaving Behind Valuable Information
Key Passage:
What the task force did find in the vehicle confirmed suspicions that Zarqawi had just escaped. The official said Zarqawi's computer and 80,000 euros (about $104,000 U.S.) were discovered in the truck.
Finding the computer, said the official, "was a seminal event." It had "a very big hard drive," the official said, and recent pictures of Zarqawi. The official said Zarqawi's driver and a bodyguard were taken into custody.
The senior military official said that they have since learned Zarqawi jumped out of the vehicle when it passed beneath an overpass, presumably to avoid detection from the air, and hid there before running to a safe house in Ramadi.
Reaction:
Point #1: Euros rather than Dollars. Which is interesting as hell to me, but probably not to anyone else. Follow the money....
Point #2: This guy has a cell phone, and someone on our side is leaking info to him.
Point #3: How did they know where the safe house was?
Point #4: General Atomics Corp and the Predator are doing fantastic work, now get a cellphone frequency sniffer on board one of them, will ya?
Conculsion - Hes got 72 hours to make it to the Syrian border. In the words of David Mamet - He's Burnt.
Posted @ April 25, 2005 04:45 PM | Current Events | Comments (3)
Synchronicity
I was in the dentist chair this morning, for a full three hours. The finishing act was to replace my broken crown and bridge.
Picture the scene, me flat on my back, the doctor and her assistant with their fingers jammed in my mouth holding the bridge down while it dries, I'm looking up at the ceiling in pain when all of a sudden over the radio comes Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong singing "What a wonderful world...."
"Oh yeah...."
Back as soon as the pain wears off.
Posted @ April 25, 2005 01:57 PM | Current Events | Comments (3)
Weekend Movie Club - Ice Cold In Alex
Sir John Mills died today and while the obituaries mentioned many of his better known movies, one of my all time favorites is Ice Cold In Alex.
From the BBC:
It's 1942 and in the Libyan war zone an ambulance with two frightened nurses, a sergeant major and a fatigued John Mills are desperate to reach the safety of Alexandria. This exciting premise is given a further twist of tension as they pick up a stray South African officer (Anthony Quayle) who is not all he seems to be.
The only reason he's on board is because he comes with three bottles of gin and poor old John Mills is gagging for a drink. In fact so much is his love for the grog that all that sustains him is the thought of sinking an ice cold beer once he gets to Alexandria.
Unfortunately his penchant for booze impacts badly on his driving skills and the group are thrown into danger. The added folly of taking on board their mysterious passenger adds an element of menace as they begin to suspect that he's a German spy. This idea of 'the enemy within' is exploited further as our plucky crew runs into a group of German soldiers. Seemingly surrounded on all sides they look doomed.
The cleverness of the film lies not only in the plot-line but also in the characterization. Mills is becoming steadily more irrational as he desperately dreams of a beer "so ruddy cold there's a sort of dew on the outside of the glass". Meanwhile his well-meaning Sergeant is too careful to make decisive decisions and nurse Sylvia Sims is like a scared rabbit. With the crafty Quayle in their midst and the enemy closing in around them it seems impossible to imagine how escape can be possible. And with all this set in the relentless baking heat of the desert you'll be left gasping for a beer too.
Watch and Enjoy...
Posted @ April 23, 2005 11:33 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
It just doesnt feel like Holland anymore...
From Canada's 'Globe and Mail':
Quote:
"The entire society is changing and people are longing for the world of 20, 30 years ago -- some people believe they can only find that by leaving," says Frans Buysse, a former Canadian embassy employee who runs Holland's largest agency for people wishing to emigrate to Canada.
Mr. Buysse can pinpoint the precise moment when the Dutch outflow became a full-scale flood. On Nov. 2, the libertine filmmakerTheo van Gogh was murdered in a bloody throat slitting by a Muslim extremist while cycling on an Amsterdam street. To outsiders, it seemed a strange, passing crime. But the Dutch responded, within their tight-knit community, the way some Americans did to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
"Canadians are all immigrants," Mr. Rijniersce said from the austere living room of their flat in a funky corner of Rotterdam. "One or two generations back, they all emigrated from somewhere else. But here in the Netherlands there has been quite a lot of problems with this question -- integration doesn't work so well. In Canada it's worked better, though I don't know why. There's a little bit more tolerance between people than there is here."
For Mr. van Ramshorst, the small-town electrician, the problem is simply that Holland has let too many people in without any attention to their ability to fit into Dutch society.
"The last 10 years, our government's policy was to tolerate almost everything, and that's not good," he said. "There's law, and there's respect of the law, and you can't just let people do anything. Tolerance is very important, but we've reached the point where we're tolerating people who despise our way of life and want to damage it."
In a post I noted earlier this week, it was said that the strategy of the EU was 'rather than fix the leaks in the boat, to simply make the boat bigger'. But what happens when the crew leaves the boat?
So, what Holland without the Dutch? and expanding on that theme, whats Europe without Europeans?
( and whats Canada and America with Dutch, French, Walloons, Germans, Poles, Italians, Nigerians? Same as it ever was, Canada and America.
Posted @ April 23, 2005 10:52 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
Al Gore: The Gift that Keeps On Giving.
"The only Web site I know with a siren is the Drudge Report," Gore said.
"The only Cable station I know that is owned by a real life talking tree is current.tv" Varifrank said.
Posted @ April 21, 2005 11:36 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
Canadian PM to Address Nation on Thursday
On Thursday At 3:45 PDT. Must See TV...
UPDATE: As of Thursday, It's Moved up to 4:00 PDT.
OTTAWA - Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, whose Liberal government continues to draw heat over the sponsorship scandal, will address the country on Thursday.
Available on CBC Radio Via Web.
"The knee bones connected to the leg bone, the leg bone is connected to the foot bone...Git out yer hankies kids this is going to be a whopper.
UPDATE: Is the Canadian PM about to pull an LBJ? This post makes me think that this is much more unusual than I had thought previously.
Quote: "It is unprecedented without a genuine national emergency," said Catherine Murray, a communications professor at Simon Fraser University.
"If the national emergency is that the government is about to fall, I'm not sure that counts," said Lisa Young, political science professor at the University of Calgary.
She said the Liberal party should pay for the air time if Martin is simply going to try to save his political bacon.
"If it's meant as an attempt to save the Martin government from defeat and then from defeat at the polls, then it's inappropriate," she said. "If it's a partisan political announcement, then the party should be paying."
She said it's an unheard-of tactic for Canada.
"This is not something that we are accustomed to in any way," she said. "This is desperation."
Johnston said Martin is taking a big risk.
"It's got to be an act of desperation," Johnston said. "One wonders if this isn't another Martin misstep.
"Even if you're running out of options, do you want to make it so obvious that you are?"
UPDATE II: Early Release of the prepared speech(EMBARGOED UNTIL 4:00 PDT - MUST CREDIT VARIFRANK):
" Good Evening My Fellow Canadians, I just have one thing to say
Queue music -
Hello, I must be going.
I cannot stay, I came to say I must be going.
I'm glad I came, but just the same I must be going.
I'll stay a week or two.
I'll stay the summer through.
But I am telling you that I must be going.
I'll do anything you say.
In fact, I'll even stay!
But I must be going.
This fact I'll emphasize with stress:
I never take a drink unless somebody's buying.
I hate a dirty joke, I do,
unless it's told by someone who knows how to tell it.
So I must be a-going!"
(Groucho Marx appears in the role of the Canadian PM couresty of MGM)
UPDATE III: What-the-hell-was-that? Ok, Harpers now on deck. I smell sulfur...
UPDATE IV: Well I dont care when Martin calls for an election, because Harper is now off and running and for my ears, He's nailing Martins hide to the outhouse door . Nows its BQ's turn.
UPDATE V: BQ backing Harper. Ever heard the saying "Hell hath no wrath like a scored woman"? Same goes for Quebec. Scathing. Next up NPD..
UPDATE VI: NPD must be the silly party of Canada. "People suffering from Smog". Smog? In Canada? Sunny jim, you need to get out of town more often. The NDP guy sounds a hack, ignore appropriately. Now for the after show chew by the pundits...
UPDATE VII: What was Martin thinking? That this was somehow going to help? He swung for the fences and missed big time. There hasn't been this much blood in the water since the USS Indianapolis went down in 1945. Canadian pundit reaction seems to think its toast for the Liberal Party of Canada. They seem to think its only a matter of time before Steven Harper calls for a "No Confidence" vote prior to the end of the Gomery Commission.
UPDATE VIII: 'Canadian Media Pundit' opinion is that this was a badly handled political stunt that will come back to bite him.
UPDATE IX: Public reaction: "The message did not get through..." Apparently, Canadians dont like elections, particularly in the summer, so that plays into the timing of this. The choice seems to be between June and December for the next election. Pundit opinion is that as of this speech,they are already into an election season. I Concur...
UPDATE X: Gasp! Can-pundit just compared Martin to Nixon! D'oh!
Posted @ April 20, 2005 03:14 PM | Current Events | Comments (0)
Mom! Joey is looking at me again.
A Varifrank Translation Service, For you the Loyal Reader..
New pope's brother very concerned about his election
Translation: Oh this is just great, and "Who Am I" exactly? Oh thats right, Im the "brother of the pope". Gee, that puts me right after what in the big scheme of things? Cardinals, Archbishops, bishops, fathers, mother superiors, sisters, nuns. So Whats "Brother of the Pope"?. I'll tell you what it is, it's "Bubkus", thats what.
REGENSBURG, Germany (AFP) - The brother of Pope Benedict XVI Georg Ratzinger, 81, said he was "very concerned" and "shocked" upon hearing that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had been elected as head of the Roman Catholic Church because of his age and frail health.
"I am very concerned. I would have thought his advanced age and his health which is not very stable would have been reason enough for the cardinals to pick someone else," said a visibly moved in an interview on German television after the election of his 78-year-old brother.
Translation: As his older and more frail brother, I should know. Let me tell you, the kids got problems, why when he was 4 years old, whoops!, I guess thats what the kids today call TMI - "Too Much Information".
"But the cardinals made their decision and that is the will of God," said Ratzinger, himself a prelate.
Translation: So I guess once again, its not what you know its who you know,isnt it. Those guys are so catty, its all a big popularity contest in there. I dont get along because I tell it "like it is" and dont blow smoke up their smocks and they dont want to hear that do they?
He said he was "shocked" upon hearing the news Tuesday that his younger brother had been elected pope.
Translation:Shocked? are you kidding? Now I get to listen to mom go on and on about "why cant you be more like your brother, you know "His Holiness - The Pope"? Mom always like him best anyway. Well, she didnt like him best when he tied her cat to the clothesline, whoops, there I go again... This whole thing is going to make Thanksgiving hell, you know that dont you? Of course "His Holiness" wont be able to make it but will that stop everyone from talking about him? ohhhh nooooo, theyll go on and on and on about what a great guy he is and how does it feel to be "the brother of the pope". I'll tell you how it feels!, oh is the camera on? Oops, better save that for later then...
"I got used to the idea during the night but it is still overwhelming," he added. Ratzinger said he had yet to speak with his brother following his election and expected to see him less often as he takes on the job as leader of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics.
"We will still have close ties but we will be much less in contact," he said.
Translation:Oh, and do you think "His Holiness" will remember my birthday this year? Its not like "My Brother- The Pope", doesnt have an entire staff of people now just to remember things for him. He cant use that " I lost my Palm Pilot" excuse anymore. I better get something more than a pair of socks this year or I may decide to get a little chatty about you-know-what dear brother...
Oh, Why should I visit him? Its not like everytime I sit down at Starbucks to enjoy a little caffe latte I wont get someone sitting across from me reading a newspaper with a headline about "Pope Benedict this and Pope Benedict that". "Pope Benedict", Feh. You know what we called him when he was a kid? We called him "Stinky". Thats right "Pope Stinky", that doesnt work so well does it! So you go ahead and call him Pope Benedict, He'll always be "Pope Stinky" to me.
Ratzinger had said last month that he did not believe his brother had a chance at being elected pope because of his advanced age and his German nationality.
Translation: You know that whole 'Martin Luther' thing just really hosed us over here in Der Grosse Deutchland. Talk about holding a grudge. I say, let it go. Its not our fault the whole Protestant revolution started because one guy got a wart on his fanny and got all "uppity". Ok, maybe it is, but come on now, its been 500 years.
Editors Note: I'm not a Catholic, Yet I have no particular issue with the Pope one way or the other, but I like what I've seen so far. I sincerely like the "Dictatorship of relativism" statement, and its made me think(which was I think, his whole idea).
But as an older bother of three younder siblings, I think I have a lot of sympathy and understanding for Father Georg Ratzinger, the "Brother of the Pope". This post comes from the recognition that no matter our status in the world, our accomplishments, our age, to our families, we will always be 5 years old and putting our elbows on the table at dinner and snakes in our sisters clothes.
Best of luck to both of them.
My parents still call and ask if I've lost the remotes to their TV or "dads tools in the yard". They live 1200 miles away and I havent been there in 6 months. And for the record mom-and-dad I havent lost a tool in the yard since 1968, so get over it will ya!
Posted @ April 20, 2005 09:57 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (3)
Bloggers Dilemma....
Doom3 on the Xbox, or a scathing post on LA Times Bias...
Doom3 on the Xbox, or a scathing post on LA Times Bias...
Doom3 on the Xbox, or a scathing post on LA Times Bias...
Doom3 on the Xbox, or a scathing post on LA Times Bias...
Doom3 on the Xbox, or a scathing post on LA Times Bias...
Doom3 on the Xbox, or a scathing post on LA Times Bias...
Sorry kids, Tonight Doom3 wins. See you tommorrow.
Posted @ April 17, 2005 08:52 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (4)
Belmont Club :Best.Quote.Ever
From this post on Belmont Club:
"It was the most audacious act of Gerrymanderying in history. It provided the opportunity to sidestep the changing demographics in Western Europe by redefinition. Long after Frenchmen were a minority in France they could still belong to an ethnic European majority, providing Europe extended to the Dnieper. Instead of mending the hole in the hull, the problem could be ameloriated by making the ship bigger so that it would take longer to sink."
Gee, Kind of like what Carly Fiorina did with HP/Compaq, Nes Pas? ...And that worked out really well too didnt it...
Posted @ April 17, 2005 06:40 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (1)
13 at SFO arrested in case of cargo thefts
Note to potential criminals who read my blog, there are few things lower than stealing packages that are en route to soldiers overseas, but here is a just partial list:
Stealing prosthetics from the handicapped.
Stealing hearing aids, canes, wheelchairs from the elderly.
Stealing food from homeless food banks.
Stealing bikes from kids(even if you are a kid)
Jackasses.
Hey! I think I know why my replacement bulb for my Infocus projector is missing!
Posted @ April 16, 2005 10:02 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
Does Europe Hate US?
Last evening, I watched the latest episode of “Tom Friedman Reports” on the Discovery Times Channel. Now, I’m never sure if he actually is a good reporter or its just that the rest of the New York Times staff is so bad that they make him look better than he is, but as a rule, I tend to like him.
The subject of this episode is about something I’ve written about many times, the general state of affairs between Europe and the US.
I’ve been haunted by the show all day.
In this show, Friedman had many small audiences of Europeans and Americans living in Europe to describe the state of affairs between the two societies. It ran the gamut from a WWII French citizen who also served as a GI, to the usual rabble of disaffected youth.
The episode in a nutshell comes down to this:
Taken as a whole, the euros really, really hate George W. Bush in a deep visceral way and they aren’t too sure about us everyday American Folk either.
I thought Friedman did a good job on the show and several points he asked the euro audiences some pretty pointed questions that they clearly were unprepared to answer, but I do wish that he had put forth one statement to the assembled masses of European opinion givers. And that is:
“You know, we don’t have to be your friends”
There seems to be an assumption on both parties that at the end of the day, all will be forgiven and we will go back to the shiny happy days of the past. The first mistake in that idea is this, that the happy days of the past weren’t so happy. Those that think there was once a golden age that we have all just slipped away from are in need of spending a little more time in their history classes. The vast majority of our history with Europe has been spent in strife with one party or the other. It has only been during the wars of the last century that Europe has looked to America as its new best friend.
The euros seem to think we are obligated to be their friends, no matter what their position or behavior towards us. Euros take us very much for granted that after all is said and done that the good ole yanks will just kiss and make up and all will be as it once was.
I’m not so sure.
I was joking with someone the other day that the way things are going, I’m more likely to get mugged for being an American in Paris than I would be as an American in Beirut.
It’s a joke of course, but I don’t think it’s too far off from accurate. I think our new friends may just come from the liberated countries of the Middle East rather than the sedate capitols of Europe.
Europe is now a competitor, nothing more nothing less so its natural that their would be very little room anyway for this idea of “countries as good friends”. To be sure, Europe is acting as we are, in their own self interest, and to that I say, good for them! But I do want to make clear to many people in Europe that there are consequences for your actions. Your governments are going into over time to spin the world’s evils as exclusive effluent from America, but you might want to look a little closer to home.
Europe is very clearly using the WTO as a tool to beat American business into submission, and they are no longer making any bones about it. It is clear that the Green parties of each of the countries in the EU are working overtime to do whatever they can to strangle American business. American business is doings its best to fight back and given a level playing field they are remaining competitive, despite the most dire predictions.
Oops, I guess we are customers of Europe too. Well golly isn’t that interesting. The way I see it, just about everything under the sun can be bought from all over the world now, so tell me, what is it that I have to get from Europe that I cant get from anywhere else at half the price and twice as fast?
Like us, Hate us, burn our flag in protest, our president in effigy, be our guest, we really don’t care either way. Just don’t expect me to be there when the going get tough, and its going to get very tough in the new world of a level playing field. Both Tom Peters and Tom Friedman have made very good points about how the world is changing, and I’m afraid it’s a message that the Euros are missing. Once upon a time, the Germans were the most competitive country on earth. Scads of books were written in the 1980’s telling us Americans how lost it was for us that we couldn’t hope to compete against the big government German machine. Much of the same was said about the Japanese. For my generation, we were taught that Americans couldn’t compete in the world. They were wrong of course, but everyone back then wanted you to believe it. I suspect the same is true today by those who say we can’t compete against the EU.
Let us all be very clear here, the EU wasn’t invented to compete, it was built to protect.
Germany by herself is not much of a factor as a competitive nation anymore. Japan has been in a recession for 10 years. Imagine that, 10 years. Germany has been in double digits unemployment for so long they don’t know what to do to get out. These are not the Germans I remember from the 1980’s. This all just a polite way of saying that I’m not really worried about Europe as a competitor. First of all, you have to have Europeans to compete with and the way their birth rate is going, it’s just a matter of time before what was Europe simply ceases to be anything more than an old folks home.
As we say in flying, the euros seem to be behind the ‘power curve’ economically speaking. Its another way of saying that the euros are writing checks with their mouths that their asses can’t cash.
I like Europe. I like Europeans. But I have some standards on who it is I let call themselves my friends. My standard has always been “ If I had an emergency and I had to deal with a problem out of town, is this someone that I could give my car keys to?”
My friends would take care of the car as if it were their own, and without asking fill the tank for the times they drove it while I was gone. My associates would put it in the driveway and just make sure it didn’t get hurt but they would use it without refilling the gas tank. My neighbors wouldn’t do much at all except make sure it didn’t get broken into.
So, from my eyes, Europe is failing the test of friendship and has now fallen into the mode of either ‘associates’ or worse, just ‘neighbors’. We might be friendly, but we are not friends.
Europe increasingly reminds me of a former girlfriend that used to call at 2:00 in the morning, just to argue with me. This was as if this would somehow remind me of how much I missed her.
All it reminded me of is how glad I was I dumped her.
Posted @ April 12, 2005 08:16 PM | Current Events | Comments (3)
Michael Totten - We bask in his reflected glory
You know, I wish I'd get these gigs where you get to go overseas and meet people in the process of changing the world. Until I do, I will have to read Michael Tottens adventures.
He's currently in Lebanon. Gosh, now what could be going on in Lebanon?
According to the letters to the BBC and the interviews on last nights episode of Thomas Friedman reports ( Why does Europe hate us?) nothing good thats for sure.
Read Michael Tottens latest adventure and remember that for more of the last 20 years Lebanon has been a place where Americans were killed or kidnapped. Things seem to have changed...
Is one man making a difference? It sure looks like it to me.
Posted @ April 12, 2005 08:34 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
Welcome Home Sgt. Moore
Click Here to see what an evil american imperialist stooge learned from his illegal occupation of Iraq.
Posted @ April 12, 2005 08:06 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
Is this something we need?
First, there was this story:
Robots to replace camel jockeys.
Then This:
Scientists Create Remote-Controlled Flies
I just have to ask the question my grandma used to ask:
"Is this something we need?"
Modified Flies? no, I think were covered there. Camel Jockeys? Look, I know that they are using kids and thats just wrong, but damn, have you ever seen a camel run? It looks like to bulldogs in a burlap sack thrown over a clothesline.
Race Cars - Not Camels.
Its always been my theory that the Pyramids of Egypt were created for no other reason than simply as a way to keep people busy. When I see things like this, I still think I'm right.
Posted @ April 11, 2005 09:59 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
Whats Arabic for "Jed Clampett"?
Look at this "Gomer" in the middle, dressed in white with the ak-47 over his shoulder. This is supposed to be the face of modern islamic terror. It also looks strikingly similar to the south end of a north going donkey...
Is this what Michael Moore called "Minutemen?" Check out the ears on these jugheads on the right. Is 'Fetal Alcohol Syndrome' a big problem in Arabic countries? I always thought of Islamic countries as being the very definition of a "Dry County", from the look of those three knuckle-dragging morons, its a bigger problem than anyone has fessed up to.
Posted @ April 11, 2005 04:51 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
Oh, the things you find in "research mode"....
Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty - circa 1966,
While I'm digging around for more information on the story of Frank Shaw and Clifford Clinton, I occasionally come across some real gems.
Here is a blog called Mayor Sam's Sister City - The Home of Los Angeles Politics. It made me laugh. The picture above also made laugh. Why? Big city mayor getting out of a little tiny car? It's not just any car kids, its an electric car.
Didnt work then, wont work now, but don't let that stop you. And be sure to keep taking billions in tax dollars for research, just to be sure. You know the 'Electricar" appears to me to be a made over Renault Dauphine. So, in addition to being inneffective, expensive and cost prohibitive, its French too? Oh yeah, That's just the ticket, let me get my checkbook... and hey, check out Mayor Sams Driver and Henchman, Dr. Poindexter Q. McSpectacles. It looks like the Vodkamans Evil Twin.
Anyway, its time I compiled my notes on Mayor Frank Shaw and made an essay out of it. I'm off this afternoon to have a broken tooth repaired and after that, I promise a nice juicy fact filled piece that shows not only another good example of one man making a difference and yet another example big example of the LA Times not acting in the interests of the public.
Posted @ April 11, 2005 01:58 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
It's Moving Day For 'The Anchoress'
In real life, Saturday is always moving day. Its no different in the blog-o-sphere.
The Anchoress has moved here. Stop by and say hello.
Posted @ April 09, 2005 02:54 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
10 Helpful Tips for Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart has decided it needs to shape up its image. We here at Varifrank are always interested in helping American business, so in that spirit, we offer the following:
---All of these suggestions from yours truly are compiled from real ‘true life’ observations - I kid you not!
10. Let’s try actually stacking goods on the shelves rather than just putting the cardboard packing boxes in the aisles and cutting the tops off, so the customers can just reach in and ‘fend for themselves’. Unpacking and shelving the goods is a tradition that goes back for centuries in the mercantile industry. It’s a little known fact that people prefer to “walk” in the aisles, not crawl over the shipping boxes in an attempt to buy cookies for the obscene price of 1.50 for a box of 36.
9. By the way, Christmas starts the day AFTER Thanksgiving. Please refrain from any sort of Christmas display until then and then have the whole spectacle wrapped up no later than Jan 1st. I don’t care what calendar you follow, I don’t care what religious sect you belong to, Christmas does not start in September. It doesn’t help to get me in the “Christmas Spirit” if I have to dwell on it for 6 months of the year.
8. ‘Door Greeters’ should be required to wear their teeth (both uppers and lowers) and/or not chew “tobaccee”, sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds or generally eat their lunch while also handing our carts at the door. Try to remember folks, you are the face of Wal-Mart, so be sure to shake twice and zip up all the way after tinkling, wear matching socks and shoes(one each on each foot, sock first THEN the shoe) , comb the crumbs out your facial hair( both women and men) and smile for goodness sake, its not much of a job, but you can at least pretend to like it.
7. When establishing the policy of allowing RV’s to stay in the parking lot, please remind the RV “guests” that while they are using the Wal-Mart parking lot to stay overnight that they are not to dump their waste tanks into said parking lot and then leave at first light. If the staff find that this has been done, they are to remove by any means necessary the offending fluids and raw materials prior to the store opening, preferably that very same day. If the offending parties are ‘caught in the act’ it would not be too far out of line to hang them from the parking lot light posts as a warning to others. Too gruesome you say? Look, this is Wal-Mart, the little shop of horrors has got nothin' on this place.
6. Please be sure to remind shoppers that food eaten while in the store is counted as a purchased item, whether it is finished before they get to the register or not. Simply putting the unfinished item back in the shelf does not bring the purchaser a ‘store credit’.
5. Please remove any partially eaten candy and drink containers and dirty diapers from the register aisle, thrice hourly.
4. Remember, first impressions count. So try to treat the primary door threshold as a way to welcome your incoming guests rather than force them to wade through a barricade of scattered 3 wheeled shopping carts, horseflies and leaflets advertising the goods in the very store they have already chosen to visit. Many customers feel that getting pushed face first into a running garbage disposal is no way to say “thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart”.
3. The 2.99 DVD bin in the video section that sits right in the aisle, effectively blocking the through traffic for half the store? Remove it immediately as it is a hazard to navigation. The mob action feeding frenzy that occurs in this area makes any science fiction spectacle in “Soylent Green” pale by comparison. If you cant remove it because the mob wont let you get near their chance to buy the “Larry the cable guy” DVD for the low, low price of 2.99, then I suggest getting some of those front loading ‘people skippers’ they had in Soylent Green to keep the mobs at bay.
2. I do not care how many times you say its ‘not true’ and I don’t care what kind of “rollback” you give as an incentive to buy, you must understand that fish, even Wal-Mart fish do not willingly float upside down. Please consider these fish to be “defective” and “not for sale”, the rest of the world does, you should too. Please keep the ratio of upside down fish to right side up fish in its true perspective.
1. The toy section. Good god, It’s a store folks, not a playground. Wal-Mart managers, please supervise this area, actually go so far as to assign someone to watch over camp “runamuck” during working hours. Children should not ride the bikes, throw footballs, open the board games or beat each other with baseball bats while ‘mummee and daddee’ go shopping.
Yes, I shop at Wal-Mart. I do not think they are a bad store, but I do think that they could spend just a second and look at what the store looks like and how it presents itself. Just because they sell it cheap doesn’t mean they have to act cheap. I don’t care where you are and I don’t care what time of day it is, or how new the store, they are always dirty. There is no excuse for this. There isn’t anything at Wal-Mart that you can’t find at Target, yet I always feel like I need a shower after I shop at Wal-Mart. I prefer to shop at Sam’s Club as they seem to have done everything right that Wal-Mart gets wrong. Unfortunately, Sam’s Club only sells items by the metric ton.
Just so it doesn’t appear that I’m picking on Wal-Mart, Here’s another list called
“Things I’ve seen at Winco”.
1. A Woman in robe, slippers and hair in curlers buying groceries. Right out of central casting. Yes, she wanted a carton of Salem Menthol Cigarettes too. You could not make a better billboard for birth control than the sight of this woman in her full regalia.
2. A Woman customer changing baby diaper in line while checking out groceries.
3. The same woman sets her baby down on countertop afterwards while she writes the check. The final disposition of diaper was never discovered. The cashier nearly fainted dead away. Yes, the diaper was full. I didn’t need to see it to know that it needed to be changed, if you get my drift.
4. A husband throwing baked beans at wife. Multiple cans, no hits.
5. His wife throwing canned potatoes back at him. Multiple cans. She was a better shot, he went down in three cans. Through all of it, store partons continued to shop unabated and undisturbed. One elderly Hispanic woman waded through the scene of spilled cans and lost romance in a sea of blue police to get what she wanted as if it happened every day. And for all I know, it might very well have.
6. A Couple with kids grazing their way through fresh fruit aisle. One bite each and on to the next. peaches, pears, apples, bananas, cant get enough fruit in the kids diet, eh mom and dad?
7. A week later I see the same couple with the same kids grazing through the bulk foods section. Apparently no one told them that the bulk sugar free candies have a special feature – its called “maltitol”. I wanted to stop them and tell them that they were eating handfuls of the world strongest laxative, but I just couldn’t do it. Talking to people like that is like talking to my dog, you try to tell them "hey dont eat that!, its bad for you" and they just hear "blah,blah,blah eat that blah blah blah blah..."
Posted @ April 07, 2005 11:42 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (4)
Is Varifrank a sexist pig?
Uh, well, if I am, I don’t mean to be. As the son of a mother, brother of three sisters, husband to a wife and a father of a daughter I can safely say that I’m pretty fond of and often in awe of women. However, several readers and fellow bloggers have written to ask if this post was meant to exclude women, both by my use of the masculine word “Man” instead of the gender neutral “Person” and the fact that all of the people in the list of people who died last week were, ahem, “men”.
Lets deal with the first charge first: Shouldn’t I have said “Person” instead of “Man”?
Maybe...
I just prefer to say “Man” as I consider it gender neutral and dealing with my species and not my sex, as in “mankind” rather than the subject of a great song by Martin Mull. I freely admit that I don’t know what the hell I’m doing when it comes to the English language, so I will now commit myself to watch my choice of personal pronouns. I grew up in Southern California where the word “Dude” has nothing to do with ranching, and can refer not only to men or women but it can mean just about damn near anything no matter how its used and only depending on the voice inflexion in the sentence. So, not only is there precedence, but once again I get to blame my parents…
Second Charge: Did I purposely exclude women from my list of people who had died in the week prior? Honestly, “scouts honor” here kids, I didn’t “exclude” women from my search, it just worked out that way, I didn’t look for “men only”. I know, it looks suspicious as all get out, but I certainly didn’t set out to go that way.
Here’s a bit of insight on how I went about making the post. I was bugged about the whole Terry Schiavo situation. First off, I didn’t blog about it, because I thought to do so was disrespectful. That was my choice, if you did, that’s ok too, I just didn’t feel comfortable talking about it, frankly I don’t feel like talking about it now either. For the record, you should know that my “living will” says there are three ways I prefer not to be killed, first is being burned to death, the second is being eaten by insects and the third is starvation. Short of those three options you have free reign to do what you think is best if the case arises where you legally get to be the instrument of my death. To me, there was a certain ghoulish voyeurism that overtook the whole sad spectacle and I honestly couldn’t stand to hear another word about it, I’m pained that I even had to write this short passage on the subject. At the same time, I thought there was something about the story that did need to be talked about that wasn’t being discussed. I thought about different angles to attack the story, and I finally decided on the “ Do individuals really matter?” angle that served as the core of the story.
At the same time I was wrestling with not writing about that story, Pope John Paul died. Now, this also bothered me as well as now we suddenly were up to our navels in 24 hour news coverage of the Popes death. Here we had news of the Pontiffs death and the very same news agencies that derided the man just-the-week-before were now praising him to the high heavens, and then of course pleading that the next Pope not be so, well you know, religious. At one point I thought someone was going to put forth the case that the best candidate would be someone with a non judgmental hipster-like swinging personality like, let’s say Dean Martin, rather than a serious man who has given up everything of earthly desire and dedicated his life to working in faith.
Oh damn, I said it again. Look, its not me that did it this time. Catholics insist that only men can be priests, only priests can be Bishops, Archbishops and finally Cardinals and only Cardinals can be nominated to be Pope on the occasion that they find themselves in need of one. So the way it works out is while none of us knows who the new Pope will be, we all know he will be a man. I don’t make the rules here folks, I just live under them. So, don’t heap all your bourgeois suburban gender guilt on me daddy-o.
I like women, I like them a lot. Now to make up for the unintentional slight on the gender that has made my life worthwhile, I will spend some time thinking about a post on women and what they have meant to me.
Can I post about my mom and not cry?
Like Niagara falls baby…Niagara falls…
To honor to my fellow bloggers who happen to be women and who have given me repeated yet undeserved encouragement, I encorage you all to go and read thusly from...
My Favorite Women Bloggers
The Anchoress
Da Goddess
Baldilocks
Red Sugar Muse
Megan Mcardle
Cathouse Chat
Middle Class Mom
Ranten N. Raven
Sissy Willis
Little Miss Attilla
the square slant This lady stopped by the other day to borrow a cup of sugar. Like I said, I'm a lucky guy.
Update: D'oh! Ranten N. Raven - NOT a woman... but visit just the same
Posted @ April 06, 2005 08:23 PM | Current Events | Comments (7)
Robert The Counter
Can one man make a difference?
All Human civilizations have grappled with this question, but today the question is causing the flag of civilization to pivot in winds of history. All cultures are grappling with the question as they set their sails on the ship of governance.
If one man cannot make any real difference in life, if one man is just like another and can be replaced by any other, then mankind itself exists simply as labor to be applied by the state for its purposes and not that of the individuals living within it. Mankind is to be regulated to save him from himself and the greater danger that he may do to the more valuable structures of civilization. Mankind is to be controlled so as to have his labors put to greater purpose than the satisfaction of the selfish interests of the individual. The state shall serve him as a benevolent patriarch, to see that his labors are put to use within the family of man and not the greedy purposes of the self.
However, If one man can in fact make a difference, and since no one can tell who might be the next Einstein, the next Newton, the next Pasteur, the next Keller, the next Carver, the next Borlaug, then all life is precious and valuable and it must be treated with the respect and dignity it deserves. The value of human life just might be found at any level of society, no matter their breeding, political membership or creed.
You understand of course, just how scary that simple idea is to some people, don’t you? The idea that all humans might just be (GASP!) of equal value! That might mean that I am no better than the guy down the street, and where does that leave me?
There are those who argue that is in fact the case, that individuals do not have any other purpose to their life except in the service of the State. However, there are dissenters like myself who say that the State exists primarily to serve the individual and not the other way around. In our opinion, the State exists to see that the individual is provided the conditions in which they may be able to achieve their own potential, whatever it may be, and that process of individual achievement may in itself be the primary benefit to the state, not in the individuals servitude to the state, but with willing cooperation for the benefit of all.
All of us have choice in how we live and the things we accept and the directions we choose, even those who live under the subjugation by the state. All prisons are capable of being prisons only because the prisoners choose to cooperate. All prisons have more prisoners than guards. All dictatorships have fewer soldiers than subjects.
Some of us in life choose the path of least resistance, to go along to get along. Others choose to take a difficult path with no guarantee of success or happiness. Others plod through life with no particular plan or design, from one day to the next like cattle on the prairie, but we all make choices on what we will accept and not accept in the conditions in our lives.
We all make choices in our lives and we each face the consequences of that choice, but our civilization is also effected by that choice. No man lives in a bubble in which he cannot reach the rest of humanity; we are all affected in some way by the choices in the lives of others.
For example:
One day in World War II a young doctor noticed how frostbitten limbs of soldiers behaved during surgery. He observed that the lowered temperatures reduced the metabolic rate and oxygen requirement of the affected tissue. This key observation allowed him to continue his work that eventually lead to the creation of the pacemaker, a device that has lead to the betterment of life for millions of people.
Once a young man dedicated his life to the study of cancer and his research will lead to the survival of millions.
Once, a young black baseball player was shown the town by a white newspaperman and both men found a friend at a time when such a thing was thought uncommon.
Once, a man wanted everyone to be able to have their own binoculars and as a result introduced a generation to the love of backyard astronomy.
Once a man joined the Marines to serve his country and ended up serving the cause of civilization in another.
Once a man decided that their was dignity in producing chicken at high quality and low price. What was once deemed a job of low breeding was the source of a fortune for himself and a great many of the people who worked for him.
Once a man fell in love with radio and made us fall in love with it too. What could have been a simple job to do in a toss away fashion became an event for all to behold.
Once a man dedicated himself to firefighting and volunteerism. His simple act of choice changed the lives of thousands of people.
One day during Nazi occupation, a young Polish man chose to enter the seminary illegally and dedicate his life to god, and our lives are better now that his actions directly lead to billions of people be freed of their enslavement by the soviet state and the corrupt religion of communism. He didn’t have to do it, it would have been easy to just be an actor, but he chose something much more valuable.
Each of these men made choices in their lives that bettered not only their lives, but our lives as well. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “ What is the worth of a new born babe?”
That question can be answered by examining each of the lives of those who died this week and asking yourself how much your life would have been changed had that man not made his choice. Imagine that the winds of history had been blowing in just a slightly different direction one day and what impact it would have on your life.
Each of us has value in our lives as humans. To have value we need not have graduated of the finest institutions of higher learning, belong to the right club, church, mosque or synagogue, drive a Prius or a Hummer. Each of us contributes to the great chain of life, whether we take active steps or not. Some contribute by doing nothing; allowing the guards to assert their illusion that the prison of dictatorship is legitimate. Others will quietly sharpen their toothbrushes on the cold cement floors of their cells in anticipation of the day when freedom is at hand.
As I said in the beginning; “Can one man make a difference?’
One day in the great depression, a man saw how the world was impacted by drought and the shortage of food and decided to dedicate his life to changing it and now billions of people are alive. Unlike the others, he did not die this week, but he deserves recognition just the same. Try to remember his name and example the next time someone talks about ‘Frankenfood”. Dr. Borlaug made a difference,he made a difference to you and you probably don’t even know it.
And who made a difference in my life? For the sake of brevity, I will just use a single example where one person made a difference to my life. Who shall it be that I use as an example? Astronaut? Doctor? Teacher? Priest? The “Great Men of History”?
Nah…
When I was 16, I was a volunteer youth camp counselor. I volunteered largely to get away from my family during the summer but that year I was tricked into taking a position at a special camp. The camp was for severely brain damaged and physically disabled kids. These kids were barely ambulatory, could hardly speak and for a white suburban surfer dude kid of 16, it was just a bit more than I could handle.
It wasnt till the first night of camp that the adults let us in on “the big secret”. You see none of us would have come if they had let us know what the camp was really for. The next day we met the kids and their parents. It was a pitiful sight. Here we were, amidst all the natural beauty of the Sierras, young and healthy with all the promise of the world being presented with kids who were a just a mess. I looked at the kids, in their wheelchairs, their thin bones, sunken cheeks and pale white skin. Their eyes, and their parent’s eyes all looking back at us, standing in the parking lot of the camp, wondering what we had all gotten ourselves into.
The first day was tough. The adult care volunteers did their best to keep us going, a few of us feigned sickness and headed back to the cabins desperately looking for a way out of this arrangement.
At dinner that night we all say in the cafeteria and pondered what to do. After a few minutes we were joined by a character known as “Kami” as in “Kamikaze” as his driving into town for supplies in his big Chevy Suburban was not for the meek or those prone to motionsickness.
He listened to us wallowing in our misery and then he stopped us and said:
“Look you guys, instead of looking at what the kids don’t have, why don’t you look at what they do have?”
We all sat there stunned and thought about it for a second and then he said this:
“ Look, if these kids were aliens from another planet, one that didn’t have as much gravity as ours, would you look at them like their was something wrong with them or that they just had bodies that didn’t prepare them for life on earth? They are smart, they are intelligent, its just that their bodies have betrayed them in some way. You might be surprised what they have to teach you”
“Teach us?” How could that be? Then he left us with one more thought:
“Try to remember, none of them is their condition by choice, but you are. You may not believe this but what you do next is going to matter a lot in their lives, if not you own”.
We all went to bed that night under the stars of the Sierras uncertain what to do next. As we lay their going to sleep, one of the kids liked to count out loud. I mean really, really loud.
1,2,3,4,5,5,6,…….7…….7….8,9,10 and so on. This went on for hours. This is what he did. He was a “counter”. His name was Robert.
As all of us took Kamis words to heart we all gradually got used to the kids, and they to us. We took them on guided trips into the woods and pointed out the differences between Ponderosa pine and sugar pine, Stellar Jays from Blue jays and listened for the sound of eagles when we tried to be quiet and listen to the woods.
As always, we were interrupted by Robert counting. One of my charges was Jamie, I looked at her one day while he was counting smiled and asked her “ Does he always do that?”
“Yes” she said slowly, her body wracked with cerebral palsy, her hands gnarled into balls. “ But he never gets beyond 25 and he only counts loud when he’s happy”.
“ Do you think he’s happy now?” I asked.
“ Oh sure! He’s very happy. He’s gotten to 25 twice in the last two days, that’s very good!”
I had been introduced to a new scale of success and accomplishment. I shared my tale with the other councilors. It became a cadence that we listened to. His tone, his speed, did he drone off or did he go all the way to 25.
As the weeks went on, we overcame our initial fears of our charges and we did learn to look at them as human beings, and not aliens as Kami had suggested.
Then one day it happened. At lunch, one of the councilors said “ Hey get this – Robert went to 35!”
We were amazed. For two weeks, this kid had only counted to 25, and when he made it to 25 it was like he had climbed to the top of Everest, it took everything he had to strain to do it. When he counted to 25, his entire body counted, not just his mouth. When I told Jamie, she sat surprised “ I’ve known Robert for 10 years, I’ve never heard him count over 25.!” We both sat there and looked at each other as we shared in the accomplishment of another kid.
After awhile we all found ourselves counting to 25. We began to say “25” in place of “ok” or “cool”.
In the last few days of camp, Robert got real quiet. It used to bother us a lot when we were all woken up at 4:00 AM to the sound of Robert counting to 25, but when it stopped we all missed it. Robert never talked; he never held conversations with us councilors or any of the other kids. Robert counted, its what he did. If you asked Robert what was wrong, he would just stare at you and then start counting, sometimes quietly, sometimes loudly. We always felt he was trying to tell us something, we just didn’t know what it was.
On the last day of camp we began to clear our Cabins and began to gather our charges and their arts and craft projects and take group pictures of each other. Suddenly, one of the councilors came running down the hill into the gathering and shouted breathlessly while she ran:
“ He’s counting again!”
And we all smiled. But then she said something else when she reached us.
“ …AND HES UP TO 50!”
We all bolted up the hill to Roberts Cabin. Sure enough, he was counting in the meadow between the cabins
51, 52, 53, 54….
A steady cadence, he was sure of himself this time. I stopped, turned around and went back to the parking lot to get Jamie
“ You have to hear this, Roberts going for a record” I said and I wheeled here up the hill her arms flailing about. She let out a big “whoohoo” like it was a ride at Disneyland.
When we got back to the Meadow we heard “60,61,62,63,64 “ and still he kept going.
Jamie sat with a smile and clapped at the wonder of it. The entire camp had now gathered to hear a boy with Cerebral palsy count. No one knew where it would end but we all sat there in wonder at the sound of it.
“ How far do you think he’s going to go?” They asked. We had no idea, but it was clear that he was going as far as he could.
As Robert approached 90, Robert began to get more deliberate,
90…….91……..92……93…….94…………..95………….96……
97
98
and at 99 he stopped. For a full minute we all sat their and willed him to say his first three digit number in his life and then his whole body strained his arms went up and he said it with a roar.
100!!!!!!!!
We all clapped and shouted and let out a yell. Robert clapped, Jamie clapped and everyone sat there amazed at this simple basic human act of communication. We all approached Robert slowly, not wanting to startle him or upset him. One of the kids said to him “ You did it Robert, you did it”
Then he said the first three words we ever heard him say at Camp.
“ Yes, I did”.
Up till then I wasn’t sure he could talk, but up till then I don’t think I could have really listened anyway.
When all the kids left we said our goodbyes and told their parents what we had learned and thanked them for letting us have their kids for a few weeks. We all gathered and told Roberts parents that he had counted to 100. They were aghast, they had never heard him go beyond 25 and he rarely spoke to anyone. We had brought something out in Robert, but Robert had also brought something out in us. He was counting for himself, but his accomplishment bettered all of us.
We felt that we had witnessed Mallory climbing to the top of Everest, and in some small way we had. We had seen a man accomplish a great task and the simple majesty of it reminded us all of the miracle of human life.
After all the kids were gone and we began packing Kamis suburban for the trip back into civilization, Kami asked us what we had learned from the kids. Then it hit us. Everyone just stood there and looked at their shoes in shame. We all thought we were giving to the kids, but then we all realized it was really the kids were giving to us.
Kami just looked at us and said “ So, who’s the cripple now, eh?”
One man does make a difference. You make a difference with your lives and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. There is a simple majesty to be found in every day life and you are a part of it whether you believe it or not.
Posted @ April 03, 2005 03:07 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2)
![[Valid RSS]](http://varifrank.com/images/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed")
){kind=link}