Want Results? Speak to an AMERICAN!

A few minutes ago I finally got back online using my Business class DSL service with Verizon. Eariler I had lost the password to my Linksys router so I had to reset it. Of course in doing this I also lost all of the settings for my Static IP. No problem I thought, I'll just call Verizon. Yeah right. After "talking" to a female cyborg computerized voice, I finally was connected to a residential tech support person. He then transferred me to the business tech support, and, after providing all of my information for the umpteenth time, "Jerry", with his Indian accent, hung up on me! I called back, madder then a hornet, and when I finally got a human on the line, I told her that I want to speak to an AMERICAN. Not some moron in Pakistan or India who can neither speak good English nor know or care what my problem is! Enter Brad from Minnesota. He listened to what I wanted; Static IP, Default Gateway, DNS, etc, then provided it. I told him that I was on the phone for almost an hour, and I was finally relieved to speak to a knowledgeable, effective AMERICAN. So there you have it. If you use Verizon and need effective results to your DSL problems, ASK for an AMERICAN. If your lucky you may get Brad. Cheers.

Sounding off on "Sound Off"

If you live in Delaware County (and I assume you do) and have read the Daily Times, you have probably seen the "Sound Off" section. Sound Off is supposed to be a part of the paper that gives a chance for the "people" to speak. The problem with that concept, however, is that the average person is completely stupid and misinformed and basically just wants to read their messages in the paper the next day. I have noticed over the past 2 years or so that Sound Off is more of a forum to trash whatever political party the caller is against. I have a feeling though that it was always filled with tacky complaints revolving around misinformation or just plain ignorance. While some of these rants are comical, most can be categorized as eye-rollers. I'll use a few of the February 16th, 2007 Sound Off calls as everyday examples of how this section of the paper is sometimes completely unreadable. Who's in Charge?: "Is there anyone in charge of the asylum? Who is supposed to be watching our tax money in Harrisburg? They're just filling their own pockets, this way and that way. Who's in charge?" Ok...what exactly are you talking about? Filling their own pockets in what way (besides this and that)? Who's in charge of what? My guess is this is someone who just found out they owe $15 income tax to the state and don't understand why they should have to pay "them". Bumps for everyone: "....Brookhaven residents...want speed bumps (on Trimble Blvd)...I have another recommendation. Put them on the turnpike and Blue Route to slow down people up there also" Here's a common theme in Sound off. People in a town want something done, person in another town compares it to his town's own problems. Here's the problem with his advice - it's completely stupid. Besides wrecking your vehicle and causing severe backups for miles along 476, what will speed bumps accomplish? I'm assuming this person is only kidding (ha ha, good one). I hope. A straight shooter: "I know Mayor C. Scott Shields. He...doesn't care if you are gay...(he) has a problem with gays demanding privileges and protections that the rest of us don't get...Talk to him, read his articles or watch him on TV..." Ok...I really thought I was out of the loop, because I had no idea who C. Scott Shields was. Turns out he's the mayor of....Rutledge. I had no idea Rutledge had this kind of gay uprising! He's also a lawyer, so I'm assuming it's $250 per hour to talk to him, and for some reason I've never been able to catch him on TV (could be because he's the mayor of...Rutledge). What exactly are the gays asking for that "we" don't get? I'm guessing that the caller wouldn't be able to give me a good example anyway. Rush to Idiocy: "....Rush Limbaugh...feels the need to express his opinions about...Rex Grossman, Chicago's quarterback....Let me tell you a secret Rush...if you're good you're good and if you stink you stink" Ahh...I'm trying to figure out why I would care. You are calling a local newspaper to complain about a radio host, not even from the region, because you don't like him commenting on the NFL? Get a life. I'm not a big Rush fan either (well ok, at all), but when you nitpick, you nitpick. This isn't to say that every single Sound Off item is horrible. There were some in today's paper thanking people for help or commenting on current events without sounding completely dumb. I would like the Daily Times to have an Internet-style sound off - a message board where you can say whatever you want, but with the opportunity of others to call you out on it. It may lead to a lot of hurt feelings, but it will also allow someone to think twice about what they are complaining about.

Bee Mites?

Hardly something to thing about at 3:45 AM on a frigid February morning, but this may have a lasting impact on our food supply. Al-Qaeda behind this? I'm highly allergic to these baddies, so much so that I run like a pussie when one gets too close.. Mystery ailment strikes honeybees By GENARO C. ARMAS, Associated Press Writer Sun Feb 11, 11:17 PM ET STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - A mysterious illness is killing tens of thousands of honeybee colonies across the country, threatening honey production, the livelihood of beekeepers and possibly crops that need bees for pollination. Reports of unusual colony deaths have come from at least 22 states. Some affected commercial beekeepers — who often keep thousands of colonies — have reported losing more than 50 percent of their bees. A colony can have roughly 20,000 bees in the winter, and up to 60,000 in the summer. The country‘s bee population had already been shocked in recent years by a tiny, parasitic bug called the varroa mite, which has destroyed more than half of some beekeepers‘ hives and devastated most wild honeybee populations. Along with being producers of honey, commercial bee colonies are important to agriculture as pollinators, along with some birds, bats and other insects. A recent report by the National Research Council noted that in order to bear fruit, three-quarters of all flowering plants — including most food crops and some that provide fiber, drugs and fuel — rely on pollinators for fertilization. "We are going to take bees we got and make more bees ... but it‘s costly," he said. "We are talking about major bucks. You can only take so many blows so many times." One beekeeper who traveled with two truckloads of bees to California to help pollinate almond trees found nearly all of his bees dead upon arrival, said Dennis vanEnglesdorp, acting state apiarist for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture . Scientists at Penn State, the University of Montana and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are among the quickly growing group of researchers and industry officials trying to solve the mystery. • Although the bodies of dead bees often are littered around a hive, sometimes carried out of the hive by worker bees, no bee remains are typically found around colonies struck by the mystery ailment. Scientists assume these bees have flown away from the hive before dying. • Normally, a weakened bee colony would be immediately overrun by bees from other colonies or by pests going after the hive‘s honey. That‘s not the case with the stricken colonies, which might not be touched for at least two weeks, said Diana Cox-Foster, a Penn State entomology professor investigating the problem. Cox-Foster said an analysis of dissected bees turned up an alarmingly high number of foreign fungi, bacteria and other organisms and weakened immune systems. In the meantime, beekeepers are wondering if bee deaths over the last couple of years that had been blamed on mites or poor management might actually have resulted from the mystery ailment. "Now people think that they may have had this three or four years," vanEnglesdorp said.

Thought Crimes and Mistermeanies

I've been following the trial of Ernest Zundel, A German who denies the Holocaust existed was sent to prison for five years. Weather your Dov Zacheim or Mel Gibson, the fact that a person can now be sent to prison for not agreeing with something is more Orwellian than ever. Were "Six Million Jews" murdered in extermination camps in Germany during World War II? Most people say so. Me? I couldn't care less. Call me a cold hearted bastard, but there were over 160 million murdered world wide during WW2, from the "Rape of Nanking" in China, to the "Death March" of Bataan, to the Russian Front. Many ethnic groups, from the Poles to the Chinese to Filipinos and even Germans themselves were killed. How many American servicemen and women? Look up the bombing of Dresden and see how many civilians were outright murdered by Allied bombers, what some say was overkill. Some wacko extremist say that the Zionist were behind it all, making way for the Balfour Proclamation, so that the State of Israel could come into being. So how does this affect me, an American of Irish decent? (Although my Grandmom's maiden name was Spellman, no relation to the director.)It dosen't. Regardless of how I feel, the fact that a person can be arrested and locked up for pure thought doesn't sound to thrilling, eh? Anyone denying that we landed on the Moon? Three years hard labor for you! Have a thought in your head about Exxon/Mobile and other petro chemical companies ripping you off at the pumps? Don't agree with Homosexual Marriage? Hate George Bush? Hillary? Think that Obama is a Muslim spy? Your all going to an internment camp, courtesy of Halliburton. America and Americans have a right to exist..

A Nice Valentines Day Story

She’s my best friend’ 02/14/2007 By PATTI MENGERS pmengers@delcotimes.com COLWYN -- It’s Monday morning at the Hill house and the lady of the manor is in the midst of doing laundry. "I just threw it in the dryer and now I’m going to give him lunch," said Eleanor Hill referring to her husband, George. After more than 63 years of marriage, they pretty much have their daily routine down to a science. But, they both will tell you, there’s nothing routine about their devotion to one another."The first time I saw her I thought, ‘Wow, how lucky can you get?’" said George, who turned 88 Jan. 19."Oh, God’s been good to us. Whatever happens, we always come out on top. I don’t know what we’d do without one another," noted Eleanor, who will be 87 in September.The Hills were among more than 30 couples honored last Sunday at a St. Valentine’s Mass at Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Darby, celebrated for the fourth consecutive year by the Rev. Joseph Corley."It was a response to them saying they wanted more support for married couples," noted Corley, who has been pastor of Blessed Virgin Mary parish since 1998. Read on... It's good to read about something good in the news paper for a change.

The New Google Blog

It seems that Google (owner of Blogger.com) is forcing us blog owners to switch to their "new" version of blogger. My old Google blogger account (dating back to 2001) already has several blogs on it. The next time I log in to this blog it will be via my old/new? Blogger account. Make sense? Cheers. Update: Well I switched, lets see if the label options they gave me work.. Hmm...

Over The Edge - The Bullshit WAR On Terrorism

After reading the below news story via Yahoo I strongly suspect that George W. Bush is insane. He is either some sort of puppet for TPTB or truly nutso in wanting this "War" to go on. Face the facts: IRAQ and Saddam had ZERO to do with September Eleventh, 2001. That's right Z E R O ! The so called bad guy, Bin dead or Bin Laden, is either dead (my belief since December of 01'), or living in South America. This is no "WAR"!! This is an invasion of American corporations into Iraq using our troops to secure the (you guessed it!) O I L. Now, the puppet and his cronies thumb thier noses at you and me and want to use tactical nukes on Iran? Is there anyone in the military or government that has the nuts to stop this insanity? Radiation, as in "DU" and any other nuke ordinance, dosen't "go away". This stuff last for thousands of years. Bottom line? It's time for Americans who care about their future and their children's future to draw a line in the sand. STOP THE MADNESS Cheers. WASHINGTON - President Bush is sending Congress a $2.9 trillion budget that would provide billions of dollars for the war in Iraq, make his first-term tax cuts permanent and achieve a budget surplus three years after he leaves office. The massive four-volume set of budget books, featuring two-tone green covers, was headed to Congress Monday, where the plan will receive a decidedly mixed reaction from Democrats. They have made clear that they plan to push their own budget priorities after regaining control of the House and Senate for the first time in 12 years. In his new spending blueprint, for the 2008 budget year that begins Oct. 1, Bush is pledging to balance the budget by 2012, make health care and higher education more affordable and promote energy security. Iraq is likely to dominate the debate with war opponents who are pushing nonbinding resolutions expressing disapproval of Bush's 21,500-troop buildup there. Faced with the competing goals of funding the war effort, preserving his first-term tax cuts and still achieving a balanced budget, the president stuck mostly with modest new initiatives. Democrats, however, contended that Bush was able to balance the budget only on paper by leaving out significant costs such as the money needed to make sure that the alternative minimum tax, initially targeted at the wealthy, does not ensnare more middle-income taxpayers. He includes a fix for 2008 but not for later years. Democrats argued that Bush's insistence on preserving his first-term tax cuts will cost more than $2 trillion in lost revenue in the seven years after 2010, when the tax cuts are due to expire. "The president wants to make the tax cuts permanent even though all the forecasts show that will explode the debt right at the time the baby boomers retire," Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (news, bio, voting record), D-N.D., said in an interview Sunday. "This budget is plunging us toward a cliff that will take us right into a chasm of debt." Bush's budget projects that the deficit, which hit an all-time high of $413 billion in 2004, will gradually decline until it becomes a surplus in 2012. To accomplish that goal, Bush would allow only modest growth in the government programs outside of defense and homeland security. He is proposing eliminations or sharp reductions in 141 government programs, for a savings over five years of $12 billion, although Congress has rejected many of the same proposals over the past two years. Bush also will seek to trim spending on farm subsidies by $18 billion over five years, mainly by reducing payments to wealthier farmers, an effort certain to spark resistance among farm state lawmakers. Bush would achieve nearly $100 billion in savings over five years by trimming increases in Medicare, the health insurance program for 43 million retirees and the disabled, and Medicaid, which provides health care to the poor. That effort is also likely to trigger heavy opposition in Congress, which rejected smaller Bush cuts last year. Most of the Medicare savings would come in slowing the growth of payments to hospitals and other health care providers, but $11.5 billion in savings would come from boosting insurance premiums paid by the wealthiest Medicare recipients. The president, appealing for Democratic support during an appearance at a House Democrats retreat Saturday, said the government must do something to restrain the soaring costs of entitlement spending on health care and Social Security before the looming retirement of 78 million baby boomers. Bush once listed overhauling Social Security as the No. 1 domestic priority of his second term. But his effort two years ago to accomplish the overhaul by diverting some Social Security taxes into private investment accounts went nowhere in Congress. The administration is asking for an additional $100 billion for Iraq and the global war on terrorism this year, on top of $70 billion already requested. That spending would drop to $145 billion in 2008 and fall to $50 billion in 2009, although administration officials conceded that future requests could go higher depending on the progress of the war. "It's tough to know what the military commanders are going to need on the ground," White House budget director Rob Portman said Sunday on CNN. The Pentagon is scheduled to get a hefty 11 percent increase in spending authority, pushing its 2008 budget to $481.4 billion. Bush's budget also includes an initiative to expand health care coverage to the uninsured through a complex proposal that would give every family a $15,000 tax deduction for purchasing health coverage but would make current employee-supplied health coverage taxable. Bush is also proposing to increase the maximum Pell grant, which goes to low-income students, from the current $4,050 to $4,600. Democrats are pushing for even larger increases. Bush's energy proposals would expand use of ethanol and other renewable fuels with a goal of cutting gasoline use by 20 percent over the next decade.

Then And Now

I remember listening to Johnny and June on the AM band in the sixties and seventies as a kid. After watching "Walk The Line" on DVD I get chills watching this above You Tube Video. It bares your soul, or does mine to the fact that people are mortal. Watch it and tell me your thoughts... Cheers.

Remembering Officer Dennis McNamara

Five years ago Tuesday, January 30th, Upper Darby Police Officer Dennis McNamara was gunned down in cold blood by a real scumbag loser by the name of Thomas “Tom Thumb” Campbell, a career criminal and member of the outlaw Pagan’s Motorcycle Gang. This pig who boasted “He would never go back to jail and would shoot a cop” or something to that effect took a Husband, Father, friend, and all around good cop away from this earth. The coward that he is, Campbell, like most of his caliber of thug, chose to react to facing the music “As in warrants out for him” by murder. Diane McNamara, Widow of Dennis, told Gil Spencer of the Daily Times that she did not want Campbell to get the death penalty, to let him rot in jail. I agree after reading her story to a point. If any two cretins on the planet need to be tortured on a daily basis it is Campbell and my favorite scumbag, Mumia Abu Jamal. To you cop killer loving losers who support these low lives? Remember: you or you families may need a cop one day. SAY NO to naming a New York steet in honor of Mumia! Thank you Trek for the link! My heart goes out to the McNamara family, friends and fellow cops, who have to deal with his murder every day of their lives. I read where Dennis was into the Guitar, and Poetry, things that are both noble and good. Campbell? Crack and Vodka. What I want to say to Thomas Campbell? Do you have any remorse??? I've included some information and links below. Donations for Officer McNamara's Children can be sent to: McNamara Children's Trust Fund c/o Commerce Bank Lawrence Park Branch 2014 Sproul Road Broomall, Pa 19008 A painting of Dennis (Pictured above) that can be found here with more information on how to obtain it. Delco Heroes Upper Darby Police Department Officer Down

In Defense Of Curt Weldon

You be the judge. To be fair to Curt, I felt that he is sincere in his "Able Danger" beliefs, and that he was baited by others to ruin his career. Melanie Sloan is the woman who Curt targets as his political assassin. Her reward? A place on capitol hill. We will see Curt, we will see...