Thoughts At Large

As of 3-13-93

Well, it's been a while since I visited this page. It's Friday the 13th for the second month in a row. Bill Clinton must feel like it's been Friday the 13th every day for the past two months. I notice that his troubles with Monica have become known as Zippergate. Do you suppose every Presidential scandal from now on will have a name ending in -gate? A thousand years from now when President George Bush XXXIII is accused of slapping a striking space miner, will his scandal be called Saturngate?

As you can probably guess, I am pickled tink that Bill's dick FINALLY landed him in the hot soup that he has deserved for so long. What a stupid ASS! If he had just come clean six years ago and told everybody that he did like to fool around and it was no one's damn business but his and possibly Hillary's he wouldn't be in this jam. He wouldn't be President or married either, but at least no one would care who was blowing him. Both of which would be very good things.

Hell, he could have settled this six months ago by just giving in to Paula Jones' demands for a public admission and apology. BUT NO!!! He had to try and lie his way out. See where that got Dick Nixon. (That word 'dick' always seems to show up) The public seems to like a president with no morals and honor. It makes them feel good that cheating and lying are condoned and practiced y the leader of the country. It makes you feel good about doing it yourself. Now, if we could only prove he offed Vince Foster then it would be okay to whack our enemies.

The Republicans are in a fix too. They want to nail his hide to the wall, but they don't want algore to be President either. Maybe if they are lucky, they can show that al was also one of Bill's mistresses. I actually heard a psychic predict that both would be driven from office by scandal. Would if it were true. Unfortunately a psychic is only one letter away from a physic, which as you know is a shit, so I haven't much faith in their opinion.

Another problem I have, is with the opinion polls. Have you ever been polled? Has anyone every actually been asked these questions, or is it all made up to tally with what the pollster wants you to think? I briefly worked for MARC Opinion Research and saw a dozen ways they can cheat. If the person refuses to answer your questions, they still have an opinion, but there is not normally any consideration for why they refused to answer. If you ask the average person to answer questions about something they are offended by, they usually refuse. How do you factor that refusal into the poll results? They certainly have an opinion, so you can't add them to those who explicitly say they have no opinion. If you ignore them, then you might assume that an equal number refused for directly opposite reasons, but how do you know that? Many people genuinely hate the press and feel that if they answer in a way that they feel the pollster opposes, that they may in some way suffer abuse. I suggest that all politcal polls must include a category for those who refused to answer the questions or just hung up.

And then, how do pollsters actually find random persons to ask their questions? If they call random numbers until they get someone to answer, how do they know that some people have 'call screening' on and just wouldn't pick up. Or perhaps the calls were all made in one specific area, where they believed most people felt a certain way. A poll taken in Texas would certainly be different from a poll taken in New York or Washington. A poll on the President's popularity as asked of a hundred people in line at a New York welfare office would certainly differ from a poll taken in front of a Baptist church in Greenville, Texas. How about the fact that many people do not have phones, or do not stay home much. Can you say that their opinion is strictly homogenous with all other people? Pollsters should be required to make public their methods for finding respondents.

And then again, there are ways to coax certain answers from people. What you do is to ask questions in such an order to instill a certain mood, before you hit them with the question that you want them to answer a certain way. There are no laws preventing pollsters from asking different people different questions based on how they answered previous questions. If you state that you earn less than a certain amount, you may be steered towards questions that might reinforce your dependency on the government, where otherwise you might have been steered towards questions about individual rights and freedoms. You can also ask questions about things the respondent doesn't know much about but may not want to show his or her ignorance. They will usually answer in a positive sense even though they might be fundamentally opposed if they just understood the question. All polls should ask exactly the same questions, but completely randomly.

The bottom line is that figures can lie and liars can figure. If the figurers are friends with the liar, then expect lies.

Didja notice that the experts were off from their meteor prediction by a mere 570,000 miles and they still want us to believe in Martians. Maybe they were using an old Pentium to make their calculations.

Jerry Springer for President!!! It would be nice to have a president who EVERYONE knows is a shithead.

I can't believe Titanic is the largest grossing picture ever. What a waste of film. The best movie of the year was 'Grosse Pointe Blank'

"Why did you just up and disappear the night of our senior prom and leave me sitting on my doorstep?"

"Well, I suddenly realized that I really, really, REALLY wanted to kill someone, and decided it wouldn't be a good idea to be around someone I liked."

Now THAT is telling the truth!

Does anyone give a damn about the Grammy's? When four old has beens win album of the year for rehashing the same garbage from 25 years ago, something needs to change.

Terry Nichols was convicted of involuntary manslaughter because he may have known Tim McVeigh was up to something that he wasn't absolutely sure about, but did nothing to stop him. Should his punishment be any worse than the FBI agent who shot an innocent woman in the head because she objected to her son being murdered.

Should police, prosecutors, federal agents, etc. be allowed to get away with crimes that ordinary people in general can't? And we wonder why people hate the government.

I would like to remind everyone that in 1929 the stock market was soaring just before it crashed into the basement and speculators started soaring out of windows.

I noticed that hanging oneself because your company went bust is popular in Japan once again. At least they aren't blaming society and lining up for bailouts. But, somehow I can't feel sorry for them. There is something basically unsound about the country. They still can't admit they were scum-sucking bastards in WWII. They act to much like our Democratic Party, where so long as crimes remain hidden, they didn't happen or matter. The appearance of honor is much more important than the actual fact. The country is full of men who think nothing of drugging women and raping them. Yet, it takes an American's rage to expose this.

Such concepts are gaining popularity in this country and can only lead to self-destruction. We cannot allow politicians and celebrities to shrug off shameful acts and go on with life. That merely reinforces the notion that getting caught was the bad thing, not the act itself. (I suggest Latrell Sprewell must play for the LA Clippers, there is no more horrible punishment)

California is sliding into the ocean. Big whoop. They knew that could happen before they built there. The only bad thing is that you and I are paying for their stupid decisions. I lived in LA for 7 years. I saw people build on hillsides that goats avoided. Land was built up with soft fill to build million buck houses on. Wooden homes were built in areas surrounded by tinder. Clearing the tinder to prevent your house from burning in the summer and fall only makes the soil erode faster when it rains in the winter and spring. Duhhh!!! To paraphrase Barney Gumble "Don't cry for them, they're already brain-dead."

Does anybody else think the new Van Halen album sucks?

Linux rules!!

Has anybody else wondered whether El Nino had anything to do with the 1930's?

It occurred to me that if you melted the entire Arctic ice cap, the ocean levels wouldn't rise an inch because it is floating ice. I wonder how much this error would affect Global Warmists dire predictions of flooding. These are probably the same guys who predicted we would kiss the asteroid.

I really don't lose any sleep worrying about how Y2K is going to affect my life.

Woody Allen's 'Sleeper' seems more and more relevant after recent studies indicating low salt diets are bad for you. Does anyone know anything about anything?

Trust yourself!!  All others are suspect.

A while back, when the Mir Space Station was having troubles, there were fools calling for the US to pull up stakes and go home. Mir is a learning tool!! When everything goes perfectly, you seldom learn anything useful. Only when something goes wrong and you figure out how to fix it, do you realize how to do it better next time. Messing around is outer space is not always going to be beer and skittles. Sometimes things are going to break and people may die. I would rather have knowledge and experience than hide my head in the sand.

Bill Gates for President ........................of Iraq.

Professional sports is beginning to bore the hell out of me. I propose a new pro sport league. Nude coed volleyball!!!!! Imagine the crowds. Imagine the TV ratings. The possibilities boggle the mind. And the best thing about it, no Nike commercials.

As of 7-10-97

With all the Mars rover hoopla, now they want to send a man there. Why don't we do the easy things first, like get a functioning, useful space station, or establish a prescence on the Moon. If we try to send someone to Mars and fail, that will set back the space exploration, not enhance it. I for one wouldn't want to be that first guy on Mars, I damn well want to know that I'm coming back. And believe me, there is NO LIFE on Mars! This phoney baloney idea is so ridiculous that it makes me sick to see assholes spouting off about it every day. Mars was never a good candidate for creating life.

As Of 11-17-1996

Well, Gore won the election. I say Gore because he will most likely be President before it is all over. The real damn shame is that the American people now have no one to blame for our decline and fall but ourselves. Fool me once, your fault, fool me twice, my fault. If aliens really did come to earth intent on destoying humanity I would be really tempted to say let 'em. We don't deserve to survive. We are as bad as we have ever been and getting worse. Stupidity is worshipped as a virtue and integrity is abhorred.

Speaking of being destroyed by aliens, did anyone else feel that "Independence Day" was as ridiculous as I did? Any alien stupid enough to buy his software from Microsoft deserves to be blown to hell. And I am really sure that a fighter aircraft capable of flying out of the atmosphere will fly enough like an F-18 that any fighter jock can jump in and make it do whirligigs. Let alone expect the whole world come together in just two days and cooperate closely enough to fight off the most powerful enemy imaginable. Hell, even the entire United Federation of Planets can't make a scratch on a single Borg ship, and the US airforce splattered them over the face of the Earth. At least they destroyed New York and LA which was be something positive.

Now, turning to sex, did anyone else notice that Bugs Bunny doesn't wear pants in "Space Jam," but his girlfriend does. Does she have something to hide that he doesn't? Where are the feminists who should be screaming that if Bugs can walk around in his birthday suit so can she? I really hate this discrimination.

Getting back to clinton, notice how his cabinet is fleeing into the wind. I don't recall any other second term President who had to completely rebuild his cabinet after winning again. They must know something they aren't telling. On top of that, clinton never got around to filling all the vcancies during his first term. Maybe he was just trying to save money. (yeah,sure)

Shakespeare didn't go far enough. First, kill all lawyers AND journalists.

Does anyone notice that the kids that star on "Home Improvement" all go by three names. Zachary Tye Bryant, Johnathon Taylor Thomas, and Taran Noah Smith. I wonder if they will become mass murderers, or presidential assassins.

Les, where is Columbo when you need him? RIP.

I am on my way to becoming a Javascript guru. I have written a number of really neat Javascript tools that my partner and I plan to market to the Internet community. We have a couple REALLY big projects in work that should make us both millionaires. (NO, you can't have a loan!) I will eventually post them here so you can ooh and aah over what a super-genius I am.

As of: 09-28-1996

A recent article in the Los Angeles Times states that malaria "kills as many as 2.5 million people each year and disables 100 times that number." How stupid do these geeks think we are? If 250 million people a year are disabled by malaria each year the entire population of Asia and Africa would be disabled by now. That just ain't so. Newspaper reporters have gotten into the habit of reporting any ridiculous number that so-called experts spew forth as God's own truth. And these so-called experts have taken advantage of this stupidity by spewing forth more and more ridiculous numbers to support whatever butt-headed proposition they are supporting. I propose a law that any reporter who reports numbers and figures that can't be supported by facts should be taken behind the barn and beaten unconscious.

The Dallas Morning News has started an idea that I feel should be nipped in the bud. When they report on the local literary bestsellers, as opposed to the national bestseller list, that have been polling specialty bookstores without pointing out that this does not reflect on Dallas as a whole, only that store's clientel. Of course they can also pick and choose what bookstores they poll so they choose typical liberal ones like black bookstores or gay and lesbian bookstores. I dare them to use a christian bookstore or to poll a rightwing bookstore. They are purposely trying to distort the readers view of what is popular in Dallas.

Do you know who makes the real money off the Internet? The people who write books. Of course I love them when I need them, but I really find it hard to fork over 50 bucks for a book that will be useless in two years. I have been going to the local computer place and periodically checking their discount book section. Books that are slightly out of date go for as cheap as 2 bucks. And for most people these are quite adequate. If you are an Internet/computer newbie try some of these places that are unloading books that are obsolete. Sometimes you can find real bargains.

Republicans complain that Bill Clinton is trying to steal their ideas. Nonsense!! Bill still firmly supports the right to murder your baby and is still firmly dedicated to eliminating the 2nd Amendment. For these two reasons alone is enough to vote Republican.

I have recently quit my job at MCI and am trying to set up an Internet business to provide a marketplace for short story writers. Wish me luck.

You probably didn't notice, but my computer has been ill for the past two months. After beating myself black and blue, I finally got someone to decide the hard drive controller was busted. The dealer had to replace the whole mother board. I'm just now getting used to not having my system crash every time I try something new.

I read the other day that the average Japanese is living in conditions that even a third world country would find deplorable. A family of five lives in a two room apartment that costs half their income, and they are lucky to get it. I guess we really did win WWII.

For those of you who haven't figured it out yet, the Net Search button on the Netscape Navigator is a really useful button. It provides links to all kinds of search engines, many of which are dedicated to just finding people. There are phone books and e-mail lists, as well as plain old engines that search for keywords. Try them and see who you can find. Put your own e-mail address up so that people can find you.

There are just SO many pictures of naked women on the Net. I didn't realize just how many people want to show off their naked body. I have considered starting my own nipple page. Send me a picture of your favorite body part and when I get enough of them I will put them on the page.

Speaking of naked people on the web, there may be lot of stuff out there you don't want your five year old looking at. There are many programs designed to prevent them from going just anywhere. If you would like to find out more, email me and I will send you the URLs. I may even incorporate them into my home page.

As of 08-18-1996
 

Regarding the recent nonsense about life on Mars, how did these scientists figure out these rocks came from Mars? Was there a Return address "Mars RFD"? They claim that after considering the available facts there was no other place they could have come from. With apologies to Conan Doyle, the notion that after eliminating the impossible whatever is left is the truth, ain't necessarily so. It just means you haven't considered all the other angles. These guys caught on to an idea they wanted to be true and ignored all the rest.

I wonder if the Democrats are going to allow anybody even remotely anti-abortion to speak at their convention.

If the ACLU is so damned worried about the erosion of the Bill of Rights where the hell were they when the Brady Bill was passed?

The Republicans missed a chance to have a REAL black Republican speak at the convention when they took Colin Powell over Allen Keyes.

Yellow Dog Democrats really do remind me of something yellow.

Has anyone noticed how the investigation of the Atlanta bombing has disappeared from the news. It makes one think that the unproven accusation against Richard Jewell was done deliberately to make the public think the FBI was doing its job, all the while they didn't have a clue.

Don't forget, slave owners CHOSE to own slaves.

People who complain about one issue voters just haven't had their particular ox gored yet.

Speaking of the ACLU, (augh, uck, phooey, That name leaves a bad taste on my keyboard.) where are they on smoker's rights? Surely, you don't suppose they have some kind of private agenda?

Didja ever notice how liberals throw around really outrageous figures to support their positions without ever any attempt to back them up. (I suppose there are a few conservatives who do the same) The Texas land commisioner recently made a claim that Texas consumed ten quadrillion BTUs of fossil fuel a year. Now how in the hell did he figure that out? Then he claimed that Texas created three times the amount of greenhouse gases (that's carbon dioxide for you dummies) than did Great Britain. Does he have some really neat GHG meter somewhere in his back yard. What the hell handbook is he using? My point is, he could be making all this up out of thin air and how are we to know any different. I propose a death sentence for all politicians who lie about scientific facts. (A more general death sentence for lying would surely wipe them all out) That way I could threaten to actually figure out if he is telling the truth and make him bite his tongue more often.

If the rumours I've heard are true, I can't wait for Fox News Network. I may actually have to break down and get cable.

Along those lines, I propose that the big four networks be forced to replace their normal anchors during the Democrat Convention. William Buckley for Jim Lehrer, Rush for Dan, Pat Robertson for Tom Brokaw, (by the way, I heard that Brokaw is Polish for "Sick Crow") and Allen Keyes for the Canadian guy. At least that way it won't be a lovefest.

until later....