Category Archives: Rant


Rant

WA State: Yet Another Tax

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MSN: Starting June 1, you’ll have to pay sales tax if you buy candy or gum in Washington state. Local taxes vary, but in Seattle, for example, that’s 9.5 cents more on a $1 candy bar.

It’s only 9.5 cents right now – there’s another effort to raise the sales tax to 9.7%.

What stands out here is the comment from the guy in eastern WA: he points out that the majority of the tax money goes to Olympia and Seattle – in all honesty, that’s also where the majority of the taxes come from – but he asks “Why don’t our government leaders take a pay cut to help out?” It’s a valid question but does cutting back on the spending (and salary) of one government match the same amount of money that will come from 6,664,195 taking more money out of their pockets in taxes? Salary won’t but it would be nice to see; spending is absolutely the thing that needs to get cut, but it won’t… at least not in WA state. We’ll be at 10% before the end of 2011 and still wondering where all the money went. We won’t have a solution for the Alaskan Way Viaduct or a solution for SR520. No progress on light rail to the Eastside. Bunch of new parks and at least four new ways to increase recycling, I’m sure, but even that won’t be tangible…

Makes me think I should have bookmarked the “our government is losing touch with the populous a little more each day” article I saw flitter by this morning…

Rant

Huh! Bimbos Come In All Ages and Genders

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MSN: In a recent interview held on New Zealand TV, the teen heartthrob fumbled over the word “German” saying, “We don’t say that in America.”

OK, so he claims he misheard the guy. I can understand that. Via Twitter, he’s been “defending himself”: Bieber even linked to another clip — one, which he said, proved his familiarity with Germany and its native tongue. “Old interview where I count in GERMAN and translate my own name. Guess I know what German is,” he tweeted.

Guess he’s learning that if you’re going to be “that” popular that anything you say can be rehashed via the media. Same thing is true for politicians. At least he can get his own voice out there to prove his own points right?

“Guess home schooling is working out. Do your research next time b4 making a lame attempt at hating on a 16 year old.”

And just like that, you have the reason why I’ll call him a bimbo: if you are going to defend how smart you are, maybe you should learn to use the language you claim is your own native tongue. This is akin to the one person telling another “no, you shouldn’t use white out on a computer screen to fix mistakes – use black out instead!”

If you chide someone for “hating on something” while making a case for your own intelligence, you’ve already lost the argument.

Rant

Missing The Point: South Park Edition

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MSNBC: A U.S. Muslim group has issued a dire Internet “warning” to creators of the satirical animated TV show “South Park” over a depiction of the Prophet Muhammad in a bear outfit.

For those of you that missed the 200th episode, there two major themes: Tom Cruise deciding to sue the town of South Park for being called a fudgepacker while working at a packing facility that was shipping fudge to people and the fact that the boys couldn’t show the Prophet Muhammad to anyone without getting the town blown up by Islamic militants, even though Kyle and Stan point out that the prophet was depicted in a past episode… but that past episode was before Theo Van Gogh was killed in 2004 for including Muhammad in a bit of film… obviously the 200th pretty classic episode because they took a bunch of old bits from the last 199 episodes and rehashed them into one funny 30 minute gig yet still managed to get a blurb of “warning” and push back about it.

Of course, Revolution Muslim misses the point and proves yet again that South Park is more than a collection of low brow humor: they continue to pump out satire and social commentary on a regular basis in a way that is entertaining and uncomfortably pointed.

Rant

Oh For Fuck’s Sake: Apple Edition

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TUAW: Apple boycotts Fox News because of Glenn Beck

Jolene mentioned this weekend that I only blog when I’m pissed off about something. I said no way that’s true! I sometimes blog when I’m just mildly bothered by something. Pissed off isn’t always a requirement. I could write about raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, but that’s not going to get me ad-clicks. Besides, I also think that posting here about the things that do bother me help me get it out of my system… so I’m not some blathering, drooling vegetable at home at nights. This way, I’m just a blathering vegatable and just drool while sleeping.

The link above? I’m just mildly bothered by this, rather than pissed off.
Continue reading Oh For Fuck’s Sake: Apple Edition →

Rant

Thicker Skins? We Don’t Sell Those Here

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MSNBC: A 16-year-old boy who police said made an announcement at Walmart ordering all black people in a southern New Jersey store to leave was charged with harassment and bias intimidation, authorities said Saturday.

When this story broke I thought “Huh?” and didn’t think much about it, seeing as it was so far away and unimportant. A week later, the story is back in the press and the kid has been arrested.

I would say I’m torn over this one, but I have to be honest: I’m not torn. But I do see two different issues at work here. The first one is that the kid was arrested. That’s fine by me. Actions have consequences and experience is a good teacher. Was a law broken here, by using the intercom? Maybe. Either way, while you have freedom of speech you have to take responsibility when you exercise that freedom. Certainly a reoccuring theme on this blog.

But then there’s the other issue that I see here, which begs the question: if this is the molehill, where the hell is the mountain and how big can that be? Either way, I expect to find Al Sharpton at the top of either the mountain or the molehill. I simply cannot believe this has made the national news. Twice. No one got injured. No stampede at the door. No stock prices were impacted. No one had threaten WalMart yet; why should they? For not keeping the mic locked up? For having an intercom system? “The kid acted on his own” and “we don’t know if it was premeditated”… oi. Would he have been arrested at all if he had yelled “FIRE!” into the intercom system? Not likely. And that is a dangerous thing to do to people not to mention illegal. What if he had said “All people wearing green leave the store?” What if he had said “All guineas leave the store?” “All the old people leave the Depends aisle?”

What the rollback price for over-reaction anyway?

Rant

Tea Baggers Go Mainstream?

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MSNBC: Tea Party movement lights fuse for right

Looks like what was once just a meme on MSNBC has gotten some momentum (and thankfully have since dropped the “I’m a Tea Bagger” slogan.) Don’t remember this thing? It was started by Republicans as a gimmicky “We’re not going to take this – we’ll rise up like we did in Boston!” during the Revolution and then quickly dropped out of sight. Now it’s back, but it’s not a Republican thing anymore… people that are now part of the “Tea Party” are pissed at both sides of the political game, Democrat and Republican alike. They want a smaller Federal government, something we haven’t had since the days of FDR in the mid-1930’s.

Simply put, our Federal government has never been as powerful as it’s been for the last 70 years and while America has only ever had two powerful parties in government, we haven’t always had the two we have now. The parties have ebbed and flowed over the years… these people are looking to return to a simpler time of smaller federal government (and likely more powerful state governments) and a change in political parties – which was the main cause of the US Civil War and one of the sticking points of the original Congressional Congress.

Should be interesting to watch where this goes. One thing is certain: these people are not part of the current party system and they are not going to stand for either current party aligning itself to them. Their goal is to hold true to the exact working of the Constitution, which makes no provision for bailout packages or even Social Security. The Constitution is truly a Capitalist Manifesto: if you can’t hack it, that’s your problem – very different than how our Federal government behaves today… After all, Thomas Jefferson believed that “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.” much in response to both American and French Revolutions; he was also a firm believer in a restrained central government, to the chagrin of Alexander Hamilton.

History repeating itself? It looks like it so far.

Rant

It Just Works, My Ass

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Apple finally released their much awaited Windows 7 drivers today. They were due to ship by the end of 2009; when they slipped past that deadline, we were told “they will ship when they are done.” While I know that when 99.44% of the industry says such things that they will be burned alive, Apple’s community says “Aw, gee, thanks! When you tell us it’s ready, we know it will Just Work.” I know that. I don’t have a big problem with that, however annoying it is, but my bigger problem is about “How long do I wait and what do I do in the meantime?”

On top of that, the Windows 7 64-bit installer simply doesn’t work.
Continue reading It Just Works, My Ass →

Rant

Park vs Parking vs Prophecy vs Profit – Full of Loss

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Over the last year or so I’ve been watching both the Seattle and Washington government with a muted interest. OK, maybe it’s less than muted given my blog posts, Facebook comments, and general flailing of arms when talking about this in person. But still: I’ve been watching WA law makers quietly work their way to a statewide income tax and they’re actually quite close now. And it won’t be like CT, where the sales tax dropped as the income tax was added – no, I expect WA wants to ask for money with two hands, rather than one. What’s even more important is that they’ve got tree hugging citizens that are applauding them for it.

Sad, really.
Continue reading Park vs Parking vs Prophecy vs Profit – Full of Loss →