I'm an American!

W Sr, BJ Clinton, W, and now B Hussein have all been very polarizing presidents. Pelosi and Gengrich also come to mind as very polarizing speakers. Now everyone is either liberal or conservative.

They're all extremeists.

I'm an American. I believe in small government. I see no problem with gay marriage. I hate paying for baby-factory mammas who refuse to get a job because they'll lose their gummet check. Why is marijuana illegal? Why raise taxes for ANYONE? A woman's body is her choice (sorry Julie but it's how I feel). Laws of the land should NOT be based on a code of laws that is thousands of years old and applies to tribal society. If you don't make enough to pay taxes, you should NOT receive any tax credits. Government should stay the hell out of private business. Government should stay the hell out of my life. Government should hire the best contractor for the job, not X number of minority-owned businesses regardless of merit. Only rednecks and the financially uninformed think a flat tax is a good idea. Why the hell is marijuana illegal? And what the hell is so wrong with 2 people of the same gender getting married? And why won't government stay out of my life???

*sigh*

You get the idea.

I'm so sick of liberals and conservatives.

Facebook Relationship Idea

I see a lot of "People you may know" on Facebook. The thing is, my Facebook contains quite a bit about me. They need an "acquaintance" mode or something.

"Yeah, I know this person, but they smell bad so I don't want to know too much about them and I don't want them to know much about me."

But at least they're added to your network.

Or whatever. Look, I'm really tired and exhausted. I'm gonna play some Civ IV now.

Words of Wisdom from my Dad

"A recession is when my neighbor loses his job. A depression is when I lose my job."

I like it.

For those of you who don't know, a recession has many possible technical meanings, but a generally-accepted meaning could be when there is negative GDP.

The difference between a recession and a depression is that recessions are self-correcting in time. Depressions are not.

The Great Depression (note the caps) was a combination of many unfortunate events that led to a long period of severe depression.

Companies now have trillions and trillions of dollars in cash. Newer regulations are in place. Even if we do enter a depression (not capitalized) you'll see that it will not be anything like the Great Depression.

Personal opinion? Everyone not in New York or California will come out of this recession within 400 days. New York and / or California may have a worse problem. Screw them.

Speaking of Kalifornia.... Why the hell are so many people STILL opposed to ghey marriage? So you may have religious opposition. Why should you force your religious views on everyone? Isn't that what Al Qaeda does? "Me: 1. You: 0"

I'm still opposed to Kanadian marriage.

More on Red Lights... *UPDATED*

Update: Although the STL city ordinance still exists (click), it looks like the Missouri law that was written exactly the same is OFF THE BOOKS! This makes the STL law ILLEGAL in the eyes of the state of Missouri! I'll have to do some digging. Note the rebuttable presumption clause in section 4b. Do some Googling on rebuttable presumption to see just how unconstitutional this really is. End of update

This is in response to the person who compared red light cameras to a parking ticket:

Look at the way the laws are written for parking tickets and the like. Apples and oranges. In the case of a parking ticket, the owner of the vehicle is responsible. And by having the registered vehicle, you understand this. The only exception is if the vehicle was stolen. If you can show your police report that you filed when your vehicle was stolen, you will not be responsible for your parking ticket.

In the case of a red light ticket, the driver is responsible, not the owner of the vehicle, although they issue the ticket to the owner. But you must prove that you were not the driver! Presumption of innocence goes out the window. This is unconstitutional.

If they were to take a picture of the driver and properly serve them with a summons (in person) instead of a threatening non-registered letter that poses as a summons (fraud), it would be different. No, I take it back. Because it's about REVENUE not public safety. I take exception to any kind of traffic policing that is about revenue as opposed to public safety.

Not sure who setup the site. It's pretty unprofessional but is backed by a few lawyers, one of which I know personally. It's the petition that counts though.

You won't win this battle. I've done too much research, in conjunction with a lawyer acquaintance of mine who is equally as pissed off about these. I'll debate all day, though, if you wish. Just make sure you know what you're talking about before you post.

RedlightCameraBan.com

There's an Arizona-based company, American Traffic Solutions that is installing these cameras, apparently for free in many cases. In return, they get up to 40% of the revenue from every ticket issued. I really have to wonder about this company, as the red light camera laws enacted in every state all read almost exactly the same. And since Mayor Slay really tried to rush this through without due process (do some Googling, this was paraphrased from an RFT article a year or 2 ago).

My biggest beef with this civil liberty-violating law is the fact that it doesn't identify the driver. And the law reads that it is the responsibility of the vehicle owner to prove that it was not him or her driving the vehicle. THIS IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL! The constitution of the United States specifically states that we are innocent until provent guilty. It's called presumption of innocence. Read up on it.

There are dozens of reasons why these cameras need to go. In my not-so-humble opinion, here are the biggest reasons to oppose them:

• The laws are unconstitutional
  
• This is more about revenue than public safety
  
• The driver is not identified (see unconstitutionality)
  
• Up to 40% of the ticket money leaves our area and goes to ATS in Arizona
  
• I really suspect ATS of some shady dealings but can't prove it
  
• THIS IS A CIVIL LIBERTIES VIOLATION
  

That being said, head out to RedlightCameraBan.com and read up on it and maybe even sign the petition. Right now they're just working on the city of St. Louis but they are hoping to expand this to the entire state.

Thank you to KTVI (Fox 2 in STL) for running the story about this website.

For what it's worth, Francis Slay and Kathleen Hanrahan will both lose my vote by inaction.

How Unethical!

In this time of economic crisis where even banks won't lend to each other and we all need to start buying what we NEED not what we WANT, I see a credit card commercial with a guy going out and buying a brand new huge HDTV with the music saying, "I want it all. And I want it now!"

Really? I want it all. And I want it now. Is that really what we need in this time of global economic crisis? Banks won't even lend to each other yet you are encouraging people to get a credit card and spend money they don't have? What?

And this is followed by a commercial for another credit card company advertising their credit card lab where you can customize your own. In other words, trying to grab the < 25 demographic.

Boylan's soda rox.

Greg sux.

Liza Minelli is scary.

I missed DnD last night because I was on call and extremely exhausted. Fuck call.

Overheard on a golf course: "SHIT!" "lol I love golf"

Hang Up and Drive!

Seriously. You're operating a motor vehicle. Hang up. Drive.

"But I'm Hands-Free!"

That's not a valid excuse, dummy! Your attention is still not on the road. Studies have shown that your reaction time is worse than an 80-year-old who has had 3 drinks.

As much as I'd love to see you Darwinized, you're putting other peoples' lives at risk too.

And don't call me if you're on the road!

Idiots.

Oh yeah. When you call me and I'm driving and I'm rushing you off the phone it's BECAUSE I'M DRIVING! Let me off the damn phone!

Ok, That's Enough

I'm really sick of redneck stuff. I'm sick of the word redneck. Redneck jokes. Etc. That's it. No more rednecks. I hate that word!

Speaking of rednecks, Mr. Kanadian man, I'll have you know I grew up in Arnold! But in Arnold, BBQ means firing up the gas grill and throwing on a steak or 2. That's not BBQing.

OBTW, I have the audio from the CMN interview. When I can find someone to give me enough space / bandwidth, I'll post a linky.

For the Last Time....

I know it's 2008. That pager attached to my pocket? It's not my personal pager! We use pagers at work because they are more reliable than cell phones for transmission of text. Nothing more, nothing less.

OBTW, I just rickrolled the entire Kelley family. Ha!

Oscars - Who Cares?

Maybe more tuned in this time around because of the novelty of it being right after the writers' strike. Dunno. But I'll tell ya what. Once you get out of SoCal and NYC, nobody really cares about the Oscars. We don't care how celebrities dress on the red carpet. We don't care whether or not Jack Nicholson finds the jokes humorous.

In fact, Jack Nicholson is everything that's wrong with the wealthy celebrity.

Long story short. You're not better than we are just because you have fame and money. In fact, it makes you shallow. The fact that you think you're better than the rest of us because of your fame and money is exactly why we don't care about the Oscars.

Get over it. Enjoy your evening of awards, but quit wasting our time by broadcasting it on TV, ok? My company's award banquet is in early December. Maybe we should broadcast it and hype it up and shove it down the throats of the wealthy celebrities?