Now I'm friggin' REALLY mad!

So, I taped (ok, TIVO'd -- does anyone really tape anything with a VCR any more?) Saturday Night Live, as I usually do -- I'm an old fart and I can't stay up until 1 o'clock in the morning to watch 2 funny skits, 5 not funny commercials, rinse and repeat. But this post is not about how many friggin' commercials are on during every, single, friggin' TV show these days. I mean, you have to pay the friggin' bills, but friggin' come on! Hallmark is the friggin'worst; they friggin' reel you in with very few friggin' commercials the first hour or two (or three), then the next 3 friggin' hours is almost more friggin' commercials than friggin' show.

But I friggin' digress. This was not supposed to friggin' be about friggin' commercials. It is about the filthy friggin' language on TV. Now, when I went to school (ok, it was a REALLY LONG time ago), you got punished twice for any friggin' foul language. Once by the school, and then they friggin' called your parents, who finished the friggin' job at home. So, you learned to friggin' control your friggin' mouth, and not say the friggin' words that you might be friggin' thinking.

Evidently, if you friggin' listen to any current friggin' music nowadays, it is friggin' filled with f-bombs, s-words, or worse. Wait, is there anything worse? I'll have to try to friggin' channel George Carlin, the master of the curse word. I mean, he became friggin' famous for talking frankly about them: the seven words you cannot say on TV. "Betcha can't eat just one!" (if you are friggin' old enough to remember that).

But, then friggin' Jenny Slate joins friggin' SNL. They had 18 friggin' years of live TV (according to one friggin' article I read) with no friggin' bad words slipping out of their friggin' mouths. Or, at least, not bad enough to make the friggin' censors cringe. Don't all live friggin' TV shows broadcast on a short friggin' delay nowadays? Maybe the friggin' censors were sleeping -- I mean, I can't stay up that friggin' late, maybe they are all asleep at the friggin' buzzers, and missed her as she lay out a great f-bomb, right in the middle of a friggin' excellent character's debut. The skit was funny, as those friggin' skits go, but I see a future for her friggin' character. But, you know she is thinking f-bomb instead of friggin' each time she is friggin' saying it, and one of the friggin' 100 times she is supposed to say, "friggin'," out it slips. No, I'm not going to friggin' say it, even though the Internet is pretty friggin' lax about friggin' bad words.

Evidently now in friggin' high school, the kids just say friggin' curse words all day, and the teachers either don't care, or they are too wrapped up in their friggin' coddling and "No Child Left Behind" seminars to damage the young adults' fragile friggin' self-image. C'mon, the kids know they aren't supposed to be friggin' saying it, that's what makes it so friggin' fun! Of course, just like "racism," the f-bomb has lots a lot of it's friggin' power, due to being friggin' over-used.

So, I'll pour a cold one here in honor of friggin' Jenny Slate -- ah, heck, for the whole friggin' SNL crew, especially that cute Wiig girl that was playing opposite Jenny (didja see her in Adventureland? She should have had a bigger part. Just my $0.02). This Bud's for you, friggin' Jenny! And, to the friggin' SNL writers, we want more friggin' Jenny on -- we love the friggin' character, in whatever she friggin' wants to do (even if she does friggin' look a little like Adam Sandberg). And, maybe, just friggin' maybe, she'll grace us with some more friggin' f-bombs. Just to piss off the censors.

And ... friggin' out!

The Muslim World Apology Tour continues

Well, Obama is at it again. Spreading more inaccurate facts and apologizing for the United States being such a great country. And making our current allies mad at us.

Time magazine has posted the full text of his speech. But, here are some excerpts (with comments from moi, of course).

• The first nation to recognize my country was Morocco.
  

If his country is the United States, then he must be looking in one of those new textbooks, because it was Holland.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_was_the_first_country_to_recognize_the_US_as_a_nation

Even though several (Democratic) presidents say that it was Morocco, that doesn't make it true.

• In signing the Treaty of Tripoli in 1796, our second President John Adams wrote, "The United States has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims."

This was at the time that the US was fighting Barbary Pirates (um, can you say, "Muslims?"), and attempting to gain protection by paying them off. It didn't work. We finally gave up and sent warships over there to straighten them out. So, he might have wrote it, but he sure found out that he was wrong about the Muslim people! Having no enmity against the tranquility of the Muslims is great, but when they attack you, there is no tranquility in that.

• ... using the same Holy Koran that one of our Founding Fathers — Thomas Jefferson — kept in his personal library.

You might ask, "Why would a Christian, Thomas Jefferson, keep a Koran in his library?" Was he a polytheist? Was he hedging his bets? No, he was studying his enemy. There are several places to find out what Jefferson thought about Muslims. The basic gist is that they thought themselves justified about making war on anyone who did not share the same religion; this war included killing, selling into slavery, and ransom.

So, true, not a factual error, but he's definitely making you think that Jefferson read it for pleasure or spiritual reasons.

Five Guys!

Wow, you think you know a guy and then this. Obama (The President) recently went on an outing, to none other than one of my favorite burger places, Five Guys. I remember when we found them near us, and were initially put off because they didn't have shakes. Then we actually TRIED a burger and fries ... wow. If you have never had fries made from fresh potatoes (versus frozen potato mash or whatever the other fast food places use), then you haven't really had french freedom fries.

Now, the President and I might disagree on a lot of things, but if that is the kind of food that he normally likes to eat, then he's all right in my book. Well, other than:

• his fiscal policies
• his stand on government meddling in private businesses
  
• his stand on stem cells (let's stick with what works)
• his choice of preachers
• letting his nominees who didn't pay taxes get hired anyway (really? Geithner? No, really?)
  
• flip-flopping on letting lobbyists into his posts
• saying that Iran "deserves" to have nuclear weapons
  

Ok, you get the idea. We probably agree on one thing ... that Five Guys is a great place to get a burger. Beyond that, well, we are probably about as far apart as we can get.

Here's more change you can believe in (NOT!)

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/04/06/obama/index.html
Yes, Obama is defending corporate america just like Bush did. How's that vote working out for all of you Obama voters? Sounds like "bidness as usual" in Washington.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think that AT&T should be punished for doing what the government told them to do. They have to keep them happy, as they control the FCC purse strings. However, if the government asked me to hack into someone else's server, I think I'd want to know what was in it for me. The legal ramifications would be huge.

Now, if it were to Cuba, or Iran, then ... the decision might be much easier. However, just against normal US citizens or businesses? No way.

So, what's next? Tax cuts for "big oil?" A bailout for the local gas stations? Selling off public parks for cash? Support for the war in Afghanistan? (well, I support that ... but Democrats usually do not)

Are bonuses evil?

So, what is it with all of the rage against AIG and bonuses? Let's put this into perspective. The people who were at AIG were probably looking to jump ship, since they were not doing well and the government was going to bail them out. Management / board got wind of this, and offered quite a few a retention bonus to stay on.

If they don't stay on, the AIG cannot possibly get back on its feet. So, win-win. Or so they think.

Now the government (democrats) jump in with their fake rage (who gave themselves raises while the rest of the country is at high unemployment, and many companies (mine included) cancelled any raises this year) about taking money from the bailout. What, is it evil to get paid what you were promised? They worked hard to get the company turned around.

Maybe a better option for AIG would have been to offer "performance bonuses" -- you get this much in sales, or meet these goals, and you get $x bonus. You wonder if the democrats could have generated as much ill-will.

What I don't like is the message that it sends. If you have an opportunity to get paid more for a particular job, whether it involves more travel (I've done that) or in a bad environment (oil wells in Iraq), then you should not have to wonder if the government will then turn around and take it away from you.

Bad, bad congress.