Ah, yes...Roofers

Not long ago, I was dealing with an interesting group of people. Roofers. After my short time with them, I do not find this article overly surprising:

Investigators believe Barry Billcliff, 27, of Manchester, New Hampshire, and Timothy Crebase, 22, of Methuen, Massachusetts, found old bank notes and bills in a house where they were doing roofing work.

This is by no means to say that all roofers are not honest...but let us just say that the number of very dishonest people I delt with suddenly jumped when I started hiring roofers I didn't know already.

Finger Found

I think we found the source of the unknown finger from Wendys!

About 1.5 million children's folding chairs are being recalled because they pose a risk of fingertip amputation, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced Friday.

James Dobson, the Anti-Christ?

In what must be one of the dumbest political moves this year, Senator Salazar (D) of Colorado called Dr. Dobson the "Anti-Christ." Powerline has an interesting post on how the Senator's apology is even worse than the original comment.

Is it wise for Democrats to completely alienate Christian Conservatives? I don't particularly think so, but this move is pretty much guaranteed to do so and do a pretty good job at it.

Update: Capt. Ed has more to say at Captain's Quarters.

Salazar's rant blows the cover off of the attacks on Bush, Dobson, and anyone who professes their faith as an important component of their lives. Judicial nominees like William Pryor and Janice Rogers Brown (who won 76% of Californian votes in her last election to the State Supreme Court) have been called "extremists" and "Neanderthals" for their "deeply held personal beliefs", as Chuck Schumer put it, which has become code for "Catholicism" and opposition to abortion. Instead of honestly debating the real issues, the Democrats have chosen to smear people of faith in the hope of driving them underground, to steal their voices and to scare them away from the public square. They want the overwhelming majority of Americans who profess faith in God to shut the Hell up, and leave government to the atheists.

One thing the left has underestimated is the ability of the church to thrive when persicuted. If they really push this issue, I can guarantee that the church will not sit quietly.

A Lesson I Learned from the TV Show "Cops"

Don't attack police officers. It's bad news bears if you do. Just ask this guy.

A Divided Great White North?

Captain Ed at Captain's Quarters has some interesting comments on the possible unhappy populace within Canada after Adscam.

One of the bitter ironies of the Canadian Adscam scandal involves the status of Quebec. Originally, the government launched the Sponsorship Program as a public-relations effort to convince Quebeckers that they are a vital part of the Canadian federation, hoping to combat the separatists that had gained enough political power to force a referendum on independence -- which lost, but only narrowly, a few years ago. After seeing $250 million of Canadian tax money disappear into the pockets of Liberal Party activists and the party coffers, however, the momentum away from separatism has been reversed. Now 54% of Quebec favors separation from Canada in some form...

Very interesting.

Mmmmm...media bias

Someone on a board I frequent pointed out this AP article dealing with terrorist acts of violence being in higher number last year.

The United States said that terrorist activity in the world increased sharply last year with the number of attacks and dead more than tripling but that it was winning the global "war on terror."

They frame the whole report on this premise that implies that the State Department is in a fantasy world. After digging into the article, they say this:

More than half the attacks reported for 2004 were in South Asia, which recorded 327 incidents that produced 502 deaths. The bulk of the incidents were reported in the divided Kashmir state claimed by both India and Pakistan.

So, the bulk of half the number were in a region that is not directly involved in the US efforts to nail terrorism. They also fail to speak one word of the massive decline in violence in Iraq since the elections...oh, wait, I forgot, the media couldn't end a story in a positive note.

More UN Corruption

Looks like more people are getting thier cummupance from the Oil-for-Food scandal.

Maybe they should rewrite the script to The Interpreter and call it The Corruptor. It might be a bit more realistic.

Boy saves Bugs

This morning I ran into this story about the kid that got Warner Brothers to change their "Loonatics" show because it would "ruin" the originals. I kinda have to agree.

These are freaky looking characters. I'd probably meet up with them in my nightmares or a bad sugar high...let alone what would a 5 year-old think?

At any rate, I guess what bugs me (pun intended) is the need for people to redo stuff done before. Rarely is it better. The new Psycho sucks compared to the old. The new The Thing sucks compared to the old. I can't think of a single redo that was better than the original. Maybe someone else can. I guess it comes down to my feeling that if it's not broke, don't fix it.

Finger-Lickin' Good

Ah, yes. The continued story of lady who allegedly

placed a finger in her chilli bowl in a Wendys. It seems as though there's a new twist:

Wendy's, based in Dublin, Ohio, is offering $100,000 for information leading to the origin of the finger.

Anyone else see a comedy gold mine here? I wonder how many people missing fingers will call in to see if they can pull off getting the money.

And what of this line:

...authorities annoucing last week that it did not appear the finger had been simmering.

On a more serious note, if this woman is guilty, I certainly hope she is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Frivolous lawsuits cost businesses millions. Hopefully, it would set an example for any others that may try to follow in her footsteps.

Airbus A380

The A380 is an interesting plane in that it's the first answer to the long dominance of the 747...which, I believe is getting close to 40 years old now. On the other hand, many US domestic airlines have dropped the 747 if they had them at all. The reasoning is the idea that people would rather go in smaller aircraft directly to their destination...thus negating the "hub and spoke" system that's currently used. An aircraft that holds 555 passengers certainly is impressive, and I suspect that many world airlines plan on purchasing them for thier flagship carriers as a "message of dominace" for lack of a better term. In fact, the only mention of US carriers in this artical are UPS and FedEx. Unlike, passenger carriers, I can see a use for such large cargo aircraft in thier shipping systems.

Giant Atlas

I borrowed my dad's copy of Atlas Shrugged and will be reading it over the next couple of weeks (it's over 1100 pages). I'll post a review whenever I finally finish the monster.

In another update, my wife has decided to start blogging as well. I'm curious as to what she's going to talk about, because she hasn't told me. If it has anything to do with our conversation earlier, it'll be about how bloging about wipers is dumb.

Wipers

I replaced the windsheild wipers on the Z yesterday and discovered that the old ones were 2 inches longer. I started wondering, what do you say to that?

guy 1: "...and they were 2 inches longer than the OEM ones."
guy 2: "Oh wow, man. Your wife must be proud."

Note: Yes, this was a poor attempt at humor. FYI, 84-86 300ZXs have 17" wiperblades...apparently you can use up to 18" without them getting all tangled up.

So I started my own blog

After reading the likes of Captain's Quarters, Little Green Footballs, and Powerline, I thought I'd try it out for myself. So far, it seems pretty easy...though, I suppose my viewship currently consists of the cat right now. Hmmm... I might tell my wife, just so I can get a hit or two.