Racist?

I've heard and read some pretty racist things recently—but none of them were said by white people and the derogatory nature of the statements was aimed at white people.

Does this mean that it is okay?

I just wondered because normally racist statements or even perceived racist statements cause an uproar—which doesn't seem to be happening in these cases.

KSTP - Ch 5 in St. Paul Doesn't Like "Old" People

Has anyone in the Twin Cities noticed that KSTP - Channel 5 in the Twin Cities has been effectively "ridding itself" of all of its news personalities who are growing older? As one of the people in the world who is growing older myself, I think I take offense to that.

Gift Shop

The definition of a "Gift Shop," is a store that sells overpriced things that you would never buy for yourself; that you can buy to give to someone else.

A Morning Like Any Other...

It was a morning just like any other—except that it was different. For one thing it was raining. Most of the time it wasn’t raining; although occasionally it was. Also, though he had somewhere to go, this morning there was no one to go with him—which was also somewhat unusual. Otherwise the morning was just the same as most any other morning. Except he watched a different news station and I guess that was different too. Otherwise it was a morning like any other…

What Said Said

I asked Said what he had to say.
He said screw you! then he ran away!
If I said what Said said,
They'd all want me dead.
But no one is mad that Said said what he said!
So hear what I say, and take this as warning,
You can't say what Said said, in evening or morning.
The thing to remember I said once or twice,
To say what Said said, wouldn't be nice.

—KJC

Spring Colds!

Will Winter finally go away???

Necedah National Wildlife Refuge

Before leaving Tomah, Wisconsin, we visited the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge. It is a good 20 minute drive from Tomah and while it was a beautiful place, the bitterly cold wind and temperature below 20 degrees Fahrenheit, kept us from spending too much time outside with our two-year-old son. Being it was Sunday, the visitor center was closed—though the building looked quite impressive from the outside.

Tomah

We had a wedding to attend in Tomah, Wisconsin on Saturday. We stayed at The Lark Inn in one of the Heritage rooms and found it to be a very nice place. We visited The Tomah Cash Mercantile, The Antique Mall of Tomah, Humbird Cheese, and we ate at the Superior Family Restaurant—which was okay—except who makes a shrimp stir-fry with unpeeled shrimp? We also ate at the China Buffet which was quite good. This was the first buffet to have ever charged us for our two-year-old to eat; but at $2.50 (2yr-3yr) it was reasonable. Unfortunately, several places we wanted to visit in Tomah were closed on Sundays; and that is when we had more time. One of these was the wildlife refuge in the next post.

Carl's Pond

Carl sent me a photo of his swimming hole. I told him to look at the picture again because it looks like it could be dangerous.

Click on picture to enlarge—Click "back" to go back

Happy Spring!

It's been Spring for over half an hour now. Do you think it is safe to change into shorts?

NCAA Financial Drain

The CEO sent out several emails during the week about his NCAA college basketball bracket challenge. The person who guesses the winners the best wins a $50 gift card!
As this reached a pitched fervor among the workers this morning, one of them began to wonder just how much time/money had been derailed in the pursuit of $50?

$500? $5,000 maybe?

No Parking

I pulled into the parking lot and
thought that the big snowbank in
the middle would be a great place
to park my car.

But then I saw the sign...

Slow Server

I may have mentioned somewhere in this blog that I periodically have to work with or remote into a server in another state that is very slow. I recently obtained this picture of it. I had originally thought that it was pulled by a donkey who didn't like me—but you can see that it is much more advanced than that.

ACME Tattoo

Where The Coyote gets his tattoos...



ACME Tattoo

Don't Drink the Green Beer!

Remember everyone, don't drink the green beer! Beer should never be green! If you know about beer, it should not be green! If it is green, it probably has gone bad!

Hell-town Foundation: History & Mission

Founded in 1666, Hell-town Foundation is one of the oldest malevolent nonprofit organizations in the nation. The Foundation’s first project was soliciting invalids for death rituals. Over its long history, Hell-town has evolved into a private foundation that makes grants to perverse groups of nonprofit human deviant agencies and programs. The Foundation benefits from the involvement of enraged volunteers, a strong cult base, and a history of excellent management. From its modest beginning to the present day, Hell-town has been run by satanic volunteers who have never lost sight of the founders’ mission of community anarchy.

Most Celebrated Human

CuTRis is now the Most Celebrated Human in the room.

Wrapper on Shore Thought to be From Flight 370

Disclaimer: The disappearance of Flight 370 is not funny to anyone involved. However, as we receive "information" from various sources about things that may or may not be found or attributed to this mystery, we will no doubt hear more about oil slicks, course changes and floating debris. For the sake of the people involved I hope something is found soon—though I believe they will suffer through several bogus reports before the truth is known. So here, I make light of the reports—not the event.

Wrapper on Shore Thought to be From Flight 370
UnAssociated Press
March 13, 1014

A candy wrapper that washed up on a deserted beach near Vietnam may have belonged to one of the missing passengers aboard missing Malaysian Flight 370. Apparently an alleged passenger was allegedly eating that kind of candy while allegedly boarding the airplane. The wrapper was first spotted by a Chinese satellite a few hours after the plane was reported missing. They did not report the finding until it went through proper channels for two days. Meanwhile the Malaysian Military said the plane turned to the west and then south and then back to the east—before finally heading north. The candy wrapper is perhaps the first solid clue as to what happened since the bogus reports that oil slicks (which are common in seas everywhere—due to sloppy procedures by oil companies) had come from the crash site—which (i.e. the crash site) has yet to be found.

Spring Pledge Drive

Well it's Spring and so it is time for our annual pledge drive to support the blog. Please bear with us as we ask you not to send money in order to keep this blog going. If you send money, you will get nothing in return. Whether you support us or not, you are welcome to read this blog whenever you wish.

At the easy-pay $1000 level, you will receive a free nothing! You can display your nothing nowhere because it is nothing. Your non-contribution is not tax deductible; so please send nothing today!
If you don't want to be interrupted by these pledge drive posts, please do nothing and they will go away all on their own! Finally, thank you for not supporting the blog.

PetDumb

I bought an under gravel filter system for my aquarium from Petco. It was supposedly a Petco product, as that was the brand. Inside there are cartridges with activated charcoal that are supposed to be replaced monthly (I think they recommend every two-weeks). I went to Petco to get the replacement filters and they told me they don't have any! I was also told the under gravel filter systems have gone on clearance—though they are still selling them. Thanks to the Internet I found that PetSmart sells the (Top fin brand) replacement cartridges that will work in the Petco system.
So why would you sell something (and continue to sell it) that needs replacement parts—but not sell those parts? That is just dumb!

State Rep. Garofalo Apologizes for NBA Tweet

So here is the Tweet,

Rep. Pat Garofalo @PatGarofalo
Follow
Let's be honest, 70% of teams in NBA could fold tomorrow + nobody would notice a difference w/ possible exception of increase in streetcrime

6:33 PM - 9 Mar 2014


Is it worthy of the publicity? Is it worthy of an an apology? Is it really a racist statement?

Probably not.

For those who choose to make this a racist thing, there have been one or two or even three players who were not African-American in the NBA. I know this even though I would probably not notice if the entire NBA folded tomorrow.

As far as street crime, I watch the news and keep an eye out for who is causing trouble in my own neighborhood and my eyewitness accounts could never be "tweeted." But then I don't use Twitter. I also don't believe that certain groups are being systematically discriminated against on a wide scale in 2014 the way they may have been in 1960.
I think that when more of a certain demographic are being incarcerated, or less are achieving high test scores that it might go back to the family values that were instilled in the people involved. I believe this because my in-laws came from a war zone to the USA and they didn't have money or special treatment; yet they believed in education and the law and it shows.
But there will always be people who say dumb things and they have the right to say dumb things in the USA. If it is a TV or radio personality, just change the channel. If it is a writer, close the book. That is your prerogative. Insisting that someone be ruined for saying something dumb is also dumb.
Will we never grow up in this country? Will we never grow up in this world? Perhaps it would be best if we didn't—because children learn prejudice from adults. That, my friends, is not only dumb but it is sad.

You will not like everything that everyone says. Everything that you do not like is not racist even if it is probably dumb.

But to be fair to the NBA, plenty of other professional sports people have been convicted of crimes.

Most of us can probably agree it isn't a racial thing. I, however, will argue that it has more to do with the values that people grow up (being taught and) believing in.
We owe our children so much more than this.

Malaysian Flight 370

Apparently the oil slicks once thought to be from Malaysian Flight 370, are not connected to its disappearance. I guess oil slicks floating around in the sea are just commonplace occurrences these days...

Died for Whose Country?

Local news stories are talking about a young marine who was killed in Afghanistan. I keep hearing that "he died for our/his country." I'm having a little trouble with that. He definitely died for someone's country but whether it was for ours (or his) is debatable.

Putin Looks Like Pout Pout Fish

CuTRis Arrested by Royal Canadian Mounted Police

CuTRis Arrested by Royal Canadian Mounted Police
UnAssociated Press
March 6, 2014

CuTRis was reportedly arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police this morning (they always get their man...), while crossing through Canada with the $1 Billion the USA borrowed from China to give to the Ukraine.

CuTRis was immediately extradited to the FBI and was in a U.S. Federal court—where all charges against him were dismissed because the money CuTRis “stole” (which was confiscated) was deemed worthless due to the fact that China printed it up without any monetary backing. Thus the object of the theft was worthless and CuTRis could not be charged with a crime. CuTRis was immediately released and the USA immediately secured another loan from China so there would be money to give to the Ukraine.

CuTRis Thought to be in Siberia

CuTRis Thought to be in Siberia
UnAssociated Press
March 5, 2014

Sources within the UnAssociated Press report that CuTRis may be hiding somewhere in Siberia. CuTRis, who has stolen the $1 Billion Aid Package for the Ukraine, told reporters at a press conference held inside of his remote snow cave, that he chose Siberia because it is "the last place 'they' will look" for him!

CuTRis is thought to be hiding in Siberia

CuTRis Steals 1 Billion Dollar Aid Package

CuTRis Steals 1 Billion Dollar Aid Package
UnAssociated Press
March 5, 2014

CuTRis is back in the news for his most recent scandal which involves him stealing the one million dollar aid package for the Ukraine! Apparently CuTRis found the package in John Kerry's hotel room. CuTRis allegedly ran off with it shouting that he was going to fix education, feed hungry people, stop animal cruelty, help the environment and save his nephew Mason--which are all things (according to CuTRis) that can be done right here in the USA! Government officials have put out a call for the arrest of CuTRis so that the money can be given away to strangers overseas. CuTRis' whereabouts are unknown at this time.

USA Borrows $1 Billion to Give Ukraine

USA Borrows $1 Billion to Give Ukraine
UnAssociated Press
March 5, 2014

The USA has just borrowed $1 Billion from China to give to the Ukraine. China didn't have the money handy, but was nice enough to print some up.

Ukraine

I feel bad about what is happening in the Ukraine and I don't trust Putin and Russia. But how can the USA afford to send a billion dollars in aid to the Ukraine? My wife and I just paid a buttload in taxes for 2013. Is this what we are paying for? I would rather spend it on our children here in the United States of America.

"Wreck" is Only One Syllable

There's a song on the radio lately that was written by Miley Cyrus called, "Wrecking Ball." The song starts okay and then it turns the word "wreck" which is a one-syllable word into three syllables. For some reason, this (to me) is one of those annoying conventions used by song writers because they can't actually come up with something substantial. Now sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't. There is a Michael Franti song (and I actually like Michael Franti) that he uses the word, "you" twice in order to complete the rhyme. True rhyming does not include using the same word repeatedly. A good example of how liberties with lyrics do not correspond to poetry so well—unless of course we are talking about "free verse", which can also often be synonymous with "bad poetry;" is the singer/songwriter Jewel. She has a great voice and some good songs—but her poetry (in my opinion) by itself is not that great (sorry Oprah, I know you thought her poetry book was wonderful—but I didn't). Good poetry has (in my opinion) both meter and rhyme and yet does not sound like any of these conventions were forced. Art, often is embraced by people who possess little skill in "real vocations" because the allure of "being an artist," seems attainable to them. This is not to say that all artists are not good at what they do. On the contrary, a true artist is good and that is what makes him/her a true artist. Many people think that art is little more than using glue and glitter. Many people think that any written word with deep meaning is poetry. Others think that their drawing/painting is exceptional! I can draw, but in no way am I an artist because of it. I can however, write poetry—though not everything I write is a poem. In fact, good art takes talent. It also takes some effort. Not to be a party-pooper, but not everyone who thinks they are an artist is good at it. So back to my original point; "wrecked" is a one-syllable word. Making it into a three-syllable word (in my opinion) is just bad writing and it sounds like it.
My wife has noticed that "though I hate the song," I am sometimes singing "Wrecking Ball." What she is not noticing, is that my version turns the word "wreck," into five or six syllables—as I amuse myself (and probably no one else) with the dumbness of it all.
But perhaps I can explain Miley’s choice in her song. Since this girl seems to hate wearing clothes, she could just be cold. When you are cold you sometimes shiver. Maybe her shivering is causing the extra syllables in her singing…

Happy March 3!

-9 degrees Fahrenheit this morning.... -14 yesterday morning it sure feels like Spring!