Random musings

No Rule 5 posting as I'm on vacation this week. But here's some stuff that's been rattling around in my brain. And I hate all that racket . .

The Sox won again last night - Red beating White 10-2 as Jon Lester looked dominating in improving his record to 11-4 this year. Theo's out shopping for arms to bolster the rotation but is looking in the dinged and dented bin hoping to find a miracle.

Rays lost after managing only 1 hit, again! The offensive woes of this team are mind-boggling and of course local geniuses are screaming for Shields and Upton to be traded for more unproven prospects in the hopes of, as above, finding a miracle. I hate to say it, but sometimes the Yankee formula of just throwing cash to get players seems a little more productive. Assuming your player personel guy knows what he's doing.

The Bucs have allowed Barrett Ruud to go to the Titans (I think). That's the second time they released their leading tackler, the first being forcing their Hall of Fame linebacker Derrick Brooks to retire early. All in the hopes of bringing in some college kid to become a superstar. I said last year that I didn't agree with how they are running this team. I know it seems to be working, but I just don't see how. Guess that's why I'm not a head coach :-P

Let me see if I've got this right -- House Republicans have passed three bills now addressing the debt/deficit situation since coming into control in 2010. The Senate, under Democrat control along with the Democrat in the White House, has shot down each one. Harry Reid was actually filibustering his own bill last night! In addition, the Democratically controlled Senate has violated it's constitutional duty by neglecting to publish a budget for over 800 days now! And the mainstream media is portraying Republicans and Tea Party fiscal conservatives as irresponsible?! Who's the party of NO now?

As I finish up my vacation, I can't stop feeling guilty for spending a little money just goofing off. I keep catching myself scolding myself -- "This could be going for bills . . . should be putting this into the house . . . pay this off . . . pay that off . . ." sheesh When did I become my mother?!

---

And just because a pretty girl takes my aging mind off stuff, here's a lithe young lady making me want to buy a chopper and go cruisin'

A small town boy in the big city

There was an episode of Friends one time, where Phoebe's little brother came to visit. And he's talking to Joey and Chandler about his day goofing around NYC. He talks about visiting Times Square, chatting with some hookers, and buying ninja stars at some store. Chandler looks at Joey and remarks ruefully, "We don't take advantage of living in the city."

I was born in a smallish town west of Tampa on the Gulf. I've spent most of my life living in the same county except for a couple of years when I lived in north Tampa while attending USF. I go to Tampa for hockey games and football games, but otherwise, don't travel there for anything else but the airport.

I had to travel to Tampa the other day to drop some stuff off at one of the hotels. With some time on my hands, I decided to park the car and just walk around a bit. As I've mentioned before, I work for the post office, so I wear a uniform to work that includes shorts (obviously). I wear them year 'round, even in winter, even last winter when it was below 30 degrees, raining, with 30mph gusts. In fact, I pretty much live in shorts. My dress up is usually jeans and a shirt. But my default wardrobe is jeans and a baseball jersey. I'm not a dressy guy.

So I forget that plenty of people dress up for work. And walking around the city, seeing all these men and women in business attire . . . I feel so out of place. Like some small town rube gawking at skyscrapers for the first time. And I'm sure, compared to New York or Chicago or L.A., or some places, Tampa is still small time. But to me it looks so different from where I live my life. So alien.

I walked from downtown towards the Forum, where the Lightning play, and on to an area called Channelside. It's a connected series of shops and bars and theaters. I've heard it advertised on the radio a million times. But I've never been there. And it's within walking distance from where I watch hockey games! Honestly, how short sighted can you be?!

But while I'm walking back to my car, all I can think is what else is there around me that I don't ever take advantage of? Tourists are always stopping me on the job to ask for directions. And during the course of the conversation, something always comes up about how great it must be to live/work near the beach and how I must be there every weekend. And my usual response is that I'm too busy working to lay at the beach.

I wonder if it is like that for everyone everywhere in the world? My sister lives/works in Hawaii. I wonder if she gets to enjoy everything that her tropical paradise has to offer?

I guess that where that stuff about stopping to smell the roses comes from. Maybe I should lift my nose from the grindstone and check out what's around me before it's too late to enjoy it.

An outsider

As a kid growing up, I never really had a large group of friends that I hung with. I had one best friend that I did everything with and when he moved away, I was alone. Ended up spending that summer and the next couple by myself.

High school was pretty much the same -- one or two friends, but never the big clique of buds and pals that everyone else hung with. In fact, at graduation, when everyone else was doing those epic parties that have become the norm, I went out to dinner with my family and then went home.

In college, I was in a fraternity, which should have been different but was not. Funny how alone you can be in a group. Fortunately, I had a close friend who was more like a literal brother, that made it less obvious that I wasn't in with the in group so to speak. That outsider status was brutally driven home when I got married, to a girl who was also in the frat in college. We sent out invitations to everyone and no one showed up. We booked this huge beautiful church and barely filled the first couple of pews. That sucked.

My current job is pretty much the same. I spent ten years as a union steward defending co-workers against contract-defying management. Sometimes to the dismay of my co-workers. Also, with my familiarity to being an outsider, I tend to stick up for those I feel are being unfairly picked on. So I've advocated and befriended enough people on the disapproved list that I'm not in the fully trusted community. I get the sideways glances and lowered voices from time to time, and often get left out of little get togethers, even though everyone is totally friendly to my face.

Of course, as a conservative political person, everything is aligned against me. Every aspect of mainstream culture and media portrays me as dangerous, bigoted, small minded, etc. If you are also a conservative, you know how relentless this is and how lonely it can make you feel at times.

I do a bit of artwork on the side for creative release. And I recently got a chance to attend a gathering of like-minded artists for a couple of days. I'm pretty well known in this circle and yet . . .

Same old, same old. After the obligatory friendly greetings, I'm standing by myself. I see the now all too familiar dance of someone walking my way, making eye contact, then turning to change direction thinking I might be coming to talk to them. The forced small talk, awkward pauses, "oh, I've got to catch so and so before they leave..." and on and on. It gets really old.

I often wonder what it would be like to be popular like I see with other people. What's it like to have someone see you across the room and make a special trip over because they want to talk to you? What's it like to have people make an effort to stay in touch with you, to seek you out without an ulterior motive?

Oh well.

/end self pitying rant

So this Orbit gum chick is a saucy flirt

Vanessa Branch is her name and see-thru hoochiness is apparently her game whilst shopping in New York City.

"febulous!"

Hat tips

I was checking my stats this morning and noticed I got some traffic from a site I wasn't familiar with. Clicking over, I see this guy has listed my blog in his blogroll.

Cool

So here's a thank you to The Daley Gator.

I also want to throw a shout out to The Classic Liberal who occasionally links my Rule 5 posts.

Thanks guys. I feel like such a grown up blogger now :-)

Update:
I see another guy has added me to his blogroll -- Jake Finnegan, has me in his Rule 5 beasties subset. heh

Thanks man :-)

Katy Perry is subtle, resourceful

After exploiting every possible permutation of flaunting her cleavage without actually ever showing anything, Katy Perry has moved on to exploiting "the other cleavage".

At the recent premiere for the live action Smurfs movie, and yes, this is the proof that Hollywood has officially run out of movie ideas, Katy eschewed her usual decolletage baring outfits for a booty baring outfit:

And they say this chick is formulaic and without original ideas.

Fooey, I say. That's innovation, baby!

p.s. I still cannot fathom how a tool like Russell Brand gets with a chick that looks like this.
*shrugs*

Retro goodness -- Brigitte Bardot

And 'cause I'm feeling especially old today . . . here's a little flashback to the innocent days of sexy -- Brigitte Bardot, with all her gap-toothed overbite-ish, wonky-eyed European sexiness:

Back then it was all Brigitte and Raquel Welch, full-figured normal looking women. No cat-faced botox babies like Megan Fox or Kim Kardashian.

*sigh*

Because you wondered about Wonder Woman

The new Wonder Woman series starring Adrianne Palicki was dead on arrival at the networks citing the usual litany of complaints about the show.

Here's a little clip that has leaked out that shows some of the action (not bad), some very stilted dialogue (pretty bad), and Ms. Palicki in the iconic WW costume at the end (totally hawt!!)

Pity they couldn't have made this work. The premise of a bad ass female crimefighter from "somewhere mysterious" could have been done right, especially with them re-doing Charlie's Angels now.

And just because, here's some sexy black & white pics of Ms. Palicki along with some topless stuff she did for some magazine . . . at some point . . . hey, what am I an investigative reporter? I just post the stuff. sheesh

Yeah, coaching is kind of important

So the Rays managed a split with the Jankees as Big Game James Shields pitched his ass off once again to overcome the . . . well, I was going to say anemic bats of his teammates. But by this point, I think the proper word is hapless.

Rumors have Shields going to the Reds possibly. I'd still like to see him in Boston, but no matter how much money Theo throws at them, I don't think the Rays would want to see another of their former stars playing in the division.

That said, one of the sofa-bound, arm-chair expert sportswriters for the St. Pete Times weighed in on the Rays offensive struggles.

Cue tape of Bucs coach John McKay -- "Coach, talk about the execution of your offense today." "I'm in favor of it."

But seriously, it might have been Marc Tompkin, but he was saying how frustrating the Rays batters were performing. Then threw out something about, "Don't talk to me about a hitting coach..." and went on to say that players at this level don't need to be coached on the basics of the game.

!?!

Really? So I guess quarterbacks don't need those qb coaches, huh? And defensive back coaches and pitching coaches and O-line and D-line coaches and . . . all useless, eh Marc?

The Rays have one player with an batting average over .300, the Sox have nearly a half dozen. Boston's 1 through 5 hitters have more home runs than the entire Rays team, in fact lead off hitter Jacoby Ellsbury's stats are better than anyone on the Rays. Are these guys really that much better players? Or just better coached?

We have been lulled into believing because someone writes for a newspaper or is on a television news show, that they are somehow more intelligent or more informed than we, the viewers. But in fact, the opposite is more likely true. They just have the soapbox, it doesn't mean they deserve it or are more worthy to express opinions as truth or fact.

The talking heads at MSNBC all ran with a snippet of an old Reagan speech trying to discredit the Republican efforts to right the economy. When if you look at the entirety of Reagan's speech he is saying exactly what current fiscal conservatives are saying -- to reduce the deficit and balance the budget you have to cut spending.

But because Rachel Maddow wears geeky glasses and smirks a lot, she has viewers who don't realize that she doesn't have a clue about what she's saying on the air. She just happens to have a show and we don't.

Contessa Brewer, who got her job at CNN by washing Ted Turner's car in a bikini (okay, I made that up, but how else did such a dunderhead get an anchor job at that network?) got pwned on live tv when she attempted to show up a Tea Party freshman over the budget talks. When she couldn't bully him to accept her DNC approved talking point, she blurted out the question, "Do you have a degree in Economics?" To which the Senator replied, "Yes, with the highest honors."

If Ms. Brewer had done the least little bit of actual journalistic investigation, she might have known that. But she just went on air and tried to push her liberal talking points down her guest's throat. Like I said, she isn't smarter than you or I, she doesn't deserve that job any more than you do, she just happens to have it. But that doesn't make her opinion more valid or accurate than yours or mine.

Betty White restores some sanity

As pretty much everyone has heard by now, a young Marine got the clever idea to make a YouTube video to ask Mila Kunis to be his date for the Marine Corps Ball. Mila accepted and it was one of those cutesy moments everyone loves.

A female Marine, hand-to-hand instructor(?), followed up with her own invite via video for Mila's co-star in their new movie, Justin Timberlake, and he accepted as well. Not sure if it was because she was cute (she was) or it looked like she could make him cry like a baby if she wanted to (she looked pretty tough). After all, Timberlake dated Jessica Biel for a while I think, and she looks tougher than most guys I know.

Anyway, it was all one of those great moments in clever thinking history. Then some smart-ass decided to send Betty White a similar invite.

*groan*

And I'm thinking -- here we go, now it's going to be invites for Kathy Griffin, Snooki, and every other D-list celeb jokers can think of to invite to this thing.

Fortunately, Betty had the smarts to gracefully decline, and hopefully that put an end to this nonsense. And if that didn't, I'm hoping the Commandant stepped in and put a stop to it. The Marines are pretty touchy about their image and this could have gotten ugly pretty quickly.

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Sometimes I think imitation is more the sign of a weak, lazy mind. There are times you just have to give it up to the guy/gal who beat you to the idea, you know?

Years ago, some college kid was looking for a way to come up with the money to help with his tuition. He got the idea to make a webpage where he could sell advertising space for one dollar a pixel. He called it The Million Dollar Webpage. It had a million pixels and you could buy a one pixel ad for a buck. Pretty neat. He got tons of publicity, did some tv, and I think in the end he made around a half-mil with the page. Very cool.

Naturally, pixel ads popped up everywhere after that. Everyone tried to jump on the idea and it simply didn't work. The original was clever and unique and the rip-offs seemed just like that -- rip-offs.

It's the same way with music. The rage over sampling for instance. Some musician (and I use the word loosely) samples another artist's music/lyrics because he/she can't come up with anything original on their own and tries to pass it off as artistic or an homage or some weak explanation other than the truth -- they don't have the talent to write their own stuff.

I remember back in the 90s perhaps, there was group called de la Soul that had their moment in the sun. And I'm watching this interview with them, and the guy's asking them about their name.

The one dude's name is M.A.S.E. And I'm thinking, maze, like corn? No, it's M.A.S.E., as in Making a Soul Effort. Uhh, yeah. Okay.

The other guy is Trugoy the Dove. Okay, some obscure language thing, right? No, the guy says he really likes yogurt, so he just spelled it backward for his name. Seriously?! That's the best you could come up with?! Why not just call yourself Jeff, you know? I mean, that's just stupid.

Look something like Will.I.am doesn't come along every day. He lucked into or had that spark of inspiration and it worked out right for history. If you have to force something about yogurt into your name, maybe you ought to just leave it alone.

Like I said, a mark of a weak/lazy mind.

But anyway, thanks Betty, for bringing the sanity.

Update:
And just like that it continues. Linda Hamilton responded to the Marine who issued the invite to Betty White, that she would be pleased to accompany him to the Ball.

*groan*

Someone please, stop the madness!

Of Sox and Rays -- part deux

The Red Sox came into town for a three game series after the All-Star break.

The Rays David Price faked an injury to avoid playing in the All-Star game, thus insuring he would be able to start game one of the series. This being the second time this season manager Joe Maddon tweaked his rotation to insure his top three starters were facing the Sox.

Meanwhile, the Sox rolled in with the bottom of their line-up: workhorse Andrew Miller, the struggling John Lackey and back to the top with recovering Josh Beckett.

The Rays won the first game 9-6, but lost game two 9-5 as Lackey recovered from a rough first inning to shut the door on the Rays often anemic bats.

Last night's game was the crown jewel as the teams went 16 innings, the Sox winning 1-0 as Dustin "Muddy Chicken" Pedroia knocked in the winning run. Beckett and Neimann had a storybook pitcher's duel throwing one shutout inning after another. It should have been a classic. But this is the Rays I'm talking about here.

Last time we had SpikeGate and this time it is BatGate.

As Marco Scutaro slams his bat to the ground in disgust after popping up again, the bat skitters towards Rays catcher Kelly Shoppach as he tries to make the catch. With Joe Maddon already ejected, bench coach Dave Martinez bursts out of the duggout to complain and gets run as well.

What he was complaining about, I cannot figure. Scutaro didn't throw the bat deliberately at Shoppach. At worst he should have gotten a warning from the ump, so what was Martinez after? My guess, he was hoping to get Scutaro run to bugger up the Sox line-up. Yet another bush league maneuver from a team that keeps doing more and more of this.

The papers couldn't get to press due to the late finish of the game, so I'm dying to see their spin on what happened. After trying to portray Kevin Youklis as a cheap shot player, I'm sure they'll be trying to pin the same label on Scutaro and probably the entire Red Sox team. And I would not be surprised to see Scutaro get drilled, probably by Price, next time they meet. That is beginning to look like the s.o.p. for this team these days.

It gets tiresome watching the papers try to gin up controversy where none exists. Instead of enjoying what was a thrilling series, though a losing one for the Rays, we get childish whining and threats of "wait til next time" from the papers and the fans who willingly get duped into the false narrative.

*sigh*

Race results

Ryan Newman started on the pole for today's Lenox Industrial Tools 301 with team owner Tony Stewart beside him qualifying second.

And that's how they finished, with Newman getting his first win of the year and Tony in second. It's the first time a team owner has started two cars on the front row and then had them finish that way since Rick Hendrick did it at Daytona over 20 years ago.

Big congrats to both guys as I've always been a huge Tony Stewart fan. He's a throwback racer, and I love his passion for the sport. Back when I was a kid, AJ Foyt used to run sprint cars the night before Indy to tune himself up for the race. And Tony's the same way. He ran at El Doro the night before this race and only got three hours sleep before turning in this strong performance.

And Ryan Newman . . . besides the obvious Seinfeld jokes, has always impressed me due to his background in avionic engineering. As a wannabe engineer, I'm always pulling for the geeky in him. Plus he's kind of a hot head out there and has the driving chops to back it up.

All in all, a great win for Tony's team and the guys. Plus it's kind of fun to see them beat the Hendrick juggernaut with their own equipment.

heh

Rule 5 Sunday -- Sara Jean Underwood

This week's Rule 5 submission is Sara Jean Underwood.

As far as I can tell, the 27 year old Ms. Underwood's two biggest claims to fame are (no, not those pervy) her selection as Playmate of the Year in 2007 and having the questionable taste to have dated Ryan Seacrest for a couple of years.

No word as to whether she was married to Hef, but he seems to marry all those chicks. *shudder*

Click on the thumbnail for full-sized images

Rule 5 Sunday suggested by this.

A Song of Fire and Ice

So, did you watch A Game of Thrones on HBO? I caught the series a few episodes in and got caught up in it. The casting, production values, the opening title sequence -- one of the coolest I've seen in a long time (imho), and of course the storyline were all wonderful.

At the end of the season, I see that it isn't a one off at all, but a series to be continued over a couple of seasons. And of course, in the opening credits, is says that it is based on George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Fire and Ice," so I figure I'll get the book and read up to see what's coming.

Back a few years, I had seen the movie Manhunter based on Thomas Harris' Red Dragon -- a movie far superior due to Michael Mann's excellenct moody direction to the lukewarm version put out later. And I had naturally seen Silence of the Lambs as well, so when I heard there would be a third movie, I zipped out and bought the book to see what was coming. As such, I both understood and was disappointed by Jody Foster's refusal to reprise her role. And also found the cowardly way they avoided the book's ending to make a more mainstream palatable ending diminished the movie, book, and series.

Anywho, I bop on over to Amazon, 'cause that's where everyone buys these days, to pick up the Fire & Ice book. Lo and behold, it isn't a book, it's a series of books. Four so far with a fifth coming. Game of Thrones was simply the first. Oh joy, this is going to be more work than I originally thought.

Now normally, I don't read the reviews on Amazon except to see what extras are in dvd's or get a synopsis of something I'm not familiar with. But I glance at the reviews of Martin's opus.

Oh my.

Review after review talking about how big the books are -- my favorite was the comment "700 page doorstop" -- how they're not for light reading, how they are oddly formatted chapter-wise. One reviewer complained about the medieval dialogue being hard to follow. And so on.

When I was in high school, I tried to read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged because my mother, father and sister had and I wanted to be able to chat about them as well. Yeah, talk about ponderous. Those were heavy reads. I never got through them. Yet I read the Dune trilogy without problem. And years later, the follow up books by Frank Herbert and then the closing efforts by his son -- pale shadows of the original stuff, but a nice homage from son to father.

I like Harlan Ellison for my sci-fi reads. He is certainly no Dick & Jane writer. And my favorite horror writer is Clive Barker. So, I'm not completely helpless when it comes to complicated storylines and rich imagery.

And as I read the reviews I begin to wonder if there is some sort of Machiavellian reverse psychology thing going on here. Sort of a "Oh this is too much for you . . . stay away . . . get something easier to read . . ." business. Which is exactly the way to get me to do something -- tell me I can't do it.

So I order the four book set in paperback and pre-order the fifth in hardcover -- I love how mis-matched books look on a bookcase. Not pricey at all. And they finally show up.

Eeesh, they are big to be sure. In paperback, the books are over 900 pages. So I decide to start on the second novel -- A Clash of Kings because the series was based on the first book and I've seen the series . . . you get what I'm thinking here. And . . .

Not hard to read at all. Martin creates a richly detailed world, the characters are fleshed out bit by bit, the dialogue was easy to follow (don't know what that reviewer's problem was). The chapters are titled according to the character they focus on -- Robb, Arya, Catelyn, etc. Nothing unusual or bizarre there.

If I had to chuckle at one thing it was Martin's description of several of the feasts. As he's going dish by dish with his description, I couldn't help but get the feeling of a student trying to fill out a word count for a term paper. It was like -- I get it, it's a sumptuous feast, I don't need to know every ingredient in every dish, dude. heh

But aside from that, I liked it. It engrossed me. You may notice I haven't posted much this week. Yeah, that's because once I start a book, I don't do anything until I'm done with it. Come home from work -- read. That's it. I got up on my day off at 7:00am and read straight through until 1:00 in the morning. Finished the book, but whew, talk about stiff.

That said, if you're a fan of the series, next season should be pretty interesting. Lots of sorcery, big battles, stuff beyond the wall, and so on.

And if you're tempted to read the books yourself, I say go for it. Don't let anyone put you off.

I've got some vacation next week. I'm going to read the first book then. Then it's on to the third book -- A Storm of Swords. Who knows, maybe I'll review it here.

Wherein I throw shade at Prof. Jacobson

I've been a fan of the blog, Legal Insurrection for quite a while. I like the prof's take on things, his Saturday night card game, the way he called out RINO turncoat Scott Brown when he flipped on several important issues.

I've donated several times to his blog and sent a couple of e-mails as well. Though he didn't respond to the last request for some info, he did link to me, but it may have been a mocking as it was during his "All Weiner, all the time" phase, and my blog name, well . . . do the math.

But the prof has a shiney new website, and is looking for hits and comments, so he does what every desperate conservative blogger does when they want assured traffic -- he slams the Post Office.

Now it was couched in the thinly veiled "Oh look at this video I found" innocent look -- picture Jack Benny with his hand on his chin (sorry if you're too young for that imagery). At least the hypocritical Ed Morrisey and cowardly Allahpundit over at HotAir have the guts to put a picture of a raw steak on the post when they throw the red meat out to their dogs.

And, to be fair, it only generated 17 comments, but they are the usual lie-filled distortions I've come to see on all conservative blogs when they begin bashing a work force made up of honorably discharged military veterans and other hard working, tax paying citizens.

So let's see what we have tonight:

A guy called 49eerDweet, talks about SEIU members . . . okay, though we have several unions and are part of the AFL/CIO, we're not SEIU members. So don't lump us in with those thugs.

Another commentor, Milhouse, said that delivery to remote areas should cost more and people who choose to live out there should put up with the extra cost. Yeah, see Milhouse, there's this thing going on called ObamaCare, maybe you've heard of it? And one of the ways fiscal conservatives have pointed out that money could be saved, and I'm going to type really slow here so you can understand, when you pool large numbers of consumers together you can decrease everyone's costs. Amazing, huh? It works for postage too. Millions of people buy stamps, so some dude out in Old Overshoes, Nebraska, doesn't have to pay $50 to get a letter delivered. What a concept!

Another loser, jackee308 made the statement that the PO has lost money 26 of the last 40 years. Really? 'Cause I've worked there for 25 and we've only lost money the last 5 years, since the Fed demanded we pre-pay our disability retirement to the tune of $5.5 billion per year. Btw, no other company, public or private, has to do this. So basically, this dude is a flat out liar. Or just stupid. Probably both.

Oh this one is good, jimg says he never uses the Post Office so to his thinking no one else needs it either. This is sort of like when someone says, 1% of the population is Muslim, so we have to restructure our entire country to please that 1%, never mind what the other 99% want -- tyranny of the minority, I call it. I've got over 1000 customers on my route. In 25 years, I've never heard one of them tell me, they don't need mail service. Funny how all these commentors are so sure no one needs us. Where's all this mail coming from then, dumbass?

Another commentor suggested we reduce to 2 or 3 day delivery. While to the outside that may seem feasible, it is highly impractical. Here's why. Over the last three years, the PO has revised routes to increase their size to handle the lower volume. Some routes have been enlarged by almost 25 percent. This right-sizing of the routes leaves no room for huge volume increases. Two or three day delivery would mean handling double or triple the volume and would be impossible. We would have to decrease route sizes, which means adding routes, and carriers and increasing the workforce, which defeats the purpose of the downsizing in the first place.

The Post Office has reduced its workforce by nearly 20% in the last couple of years. Despite what you have heard, people are being fired or layed off. Anyone who says different is either a baldface liar or tragically uninformed. The PO is pushing hard to reform its work methodology and add services that would increase revenue. Again, despite what many ignorant bloggers would have you believe, we are trying to be competitive.

And speaking of competitive, another debunking -- as carriers, we make the same money as UPS and FedEx delivery persons as far as wage and benefits. Our retirement is a 401k plan like many others and our insurance costs us just like anyone else. No one is getting a free ride.

And not only that, what most complainers don't know is that there is no regional adjustment for pay. Which means that a clerk/carrier in New York City or Chicago or L.A. makes the same money as we do in Florida, despite their much much higher costs of living. Oops, there goes that whole "pay them salaries relative to private sector workers" argument out the window. UPS and FedEx workers get higher wages than us in those cities. Of course, you'd have to do some actual research to find that out, but why let a few facts get in the way of some unhinged ranting.

Another popular whine is that since the PO is in trouble, they should just cut wages and benefits to save money. Yeah, just like that. Don't worry about those pesky little contracts and stuff. All the various crafts in the PO function under legally arbitrated contracts. And since the prof's blog is a "legal" type blog, I wonder if some of these idiot commentors would like his opinion on the whole slippery slope argument about arbitrarily abrogating contracts. It's funny, when those bankers and investment types got their delayed bonuses from the bailout money, conservatives were totally okay with it . . . 'cause they were contractual payments due the employees. But when they look at government workers and payments due them, all of the sudden it's "Contract?! Who gives a sh*t! They're worthless goverment employees . . . screw em!"

It's not just liberals who are hypocritical asses, plenty of douchebags on this side of the aisle as well.

It's a pity that bloggers like Prof Jacobson cannot do the most minimal of homework before bashing a part of the federal gov't that consistantly ranks as the most trusted in poll after poll. But in the name of high traffic and to gin up comments, I guess we're fair game.

So this is me giving you the finger Prof. You've earned it.

Rule 5 Sunday -- Savannah Costello

This week's Rule 5 submission is actress/model Savannah Costello.

Savannah has a career that spans quite a few genres, from movies like Carver and Fear of Clowns 2 to magazine appearances in Playboy, FHM, and Bizarre. Along with varied promotional stuff.

I actually got her autograph one time. Yeah, I'm cool like that. heh

So enjoy these images of a versatile, sexy, and busy southern beauty.

Click on the thumbnails for full-sized images

Rule 5 Sunday suggested by this.

Glorious excess

So I beg to finally get a day off during the week to get all those pesky little things done that suddenly crop up when you can't get a weekday off. One of the items on my to do list is to put my car in the shop for an oil change and some minor warranty covered repairs.

Here's my baby girl:

450 throaty rumbling horses (with the cold air kit -- highly recommended, btw), full time 8 cylinders, when I want to pull out into traffic, it's just stomp & go baby! Awww yeah!

But anyway, they have to do some other scheduled maintenance stuff, so I get a ride home to wait it out. Of course, there's nothing to eat at home -- hey, single guy here . . . I don't shop until it's an emergency. I decide to walk over to KFC since it's close to my house.

Now I haven't eaten at the Colonel's in about 10 years, so I'm a little fuzzy on the menu. I'm looking and I see this thing they call The Double Down. I vaguely remember some nanny whining when this came out, but didn't pay a lot of attention. I order the meal and take it home.

ZOMG! I think I've found my new favorite sandwich! Two breaded chicken patties with bacon and a slice of monterey jack and a slice of pepper jack cheese along with a special sauce between. No bread, just a meat & cheese sandwich. Holy crap, I loved it.

540 calories with 32 grams of fat and 1380 mg of sodium . . . my arteries are hardening just typing this. But they're my arteries, and if I want to clog 'em up, that's my choice!

And that's how it should be in this country -- if I want to drive a gas guzzler or eat a yummy but less than totally healthy lunch, I should be able to. The President and his wife, who have a carbon footprint the size of Godzilla on steroids, would take these choices away from you, for your own good, they say. While they eat bbq and pizza and dump metric tons of pollution in the air to take in a movie in New York, they want us to live like paupers -- riding in overcrowded public transport and eating lettuce and bean sprout sandwiches.

Not me brother. They're getting my big V8 and meat sandwich when they get my legally owned firearms . . . you know the rest.

And from the who cares department . . .

We learn the riviting news that Reese Witherspoon has a belly tattoo. *yawns*

It would be more shocking if someone could find a Hollywood actress who doesn't have ink.

Frankly, I'm more astounded by the fact that Reese is photographed five days a week jogging, or doing martial arts in the park, or playing softball or whatever, and she still has that doughy, pudgy body. What's up with that?

---

Inside sources also say that acclaimed thespian Jennifer Aniston put her high heel down and demanded to wear the dark brown wig with bangs in her new movie Horrible Bosses over the director's objections.

You go girl! Talk about standing tall before the man!

I'm telling ya, I'm smelling Academy Award here. I'm sure Jen will be joining the totally deserving, not overrated at all Julia Roberts, as an Oscar winner at the end of the movie season after this gutsy performance.

Oh yeah, and she's taking a year off to spend with her new stolen boyfriend. What will the industry do without her? *yawns again*

---

Noted legal experts from around the world are weighing in on the Casey Anthony verdict.

Mensa candidate Kim Kardashian is shocked, shocked I tell ya, at this travesty of justice. Of course she should know, she watched daddy get O.J. off.

And Lindsay Lohan is equally appalled. As someone who's skirted incarceration for a variety of crimes, Linds is probably the most appropriate person to be commenting on the situation. That said, why she didn't see this coming is a bit of a surprise. But I'm sure there will be much more trenchant commentary forthcoming from this lot in the future.
*really yawns*

The Casey Anthony verdict

So, yeah, Casey Anthony was not found guilty of murdering her child.

I found out when I went into the place where I get my sandwich made for lunch. Everyone was stomping around and cursing and my thought was that maybe I shouldn't eat whatever comes out of that place today.

The bottom line here is that we have created a criminal justice system that is overwhelmingly tilted in favor of the accused. Perhaps well intentioned, but in the interest of never putting an innocent in jail, we've made it nearly impossible to convict anyone without eyewitness testimony or a confession.

When I was younger, legal experts used to complain about the Perry Mason syndrome -- jurors were accustomed to thinking the defense attorney would solve the crime, present the truly guilty party during the trial and get a tearful confession on the stand.

Now we have the CSI/Law & Order syndrome -- jurors expect the prosecution to find some miniscule piece of evidence, or some Holmesian savant detective will get inside the criminal's mind to unravel the mystery.

On a side note -- expect a ripped from the headlines episode of L&O SVU where the part of Casey Anthony is portrayed as a tea party/christian evangelical who murders her child and is defended by a Sarah Palin look-a-like who rails constantly at the media while tweeting inappropriate images of herself to underage boys. 'Cause that's how hard the left sucks.

I don't know if Casey Anthony is guilty or not. I'm probably one of three people on the planet who didn't spend every waking minute of my life following this trial. Not because I didn't care, but because I've seen this too many times already -- O.J., Scott Peterson(sorry, bad example, they got him), this IMF guy in New York, Natalie Holloway, etc. There's too much of this tragedy in the world, and truth be told, it's too easy to get away with murder. I didn't want the personal jolt of watching the system fail again.

Like Jamie Foxx's character said in Law Abiding Citizen -- "It's not what you know, it's what you can prove!"

It sucks, but that is how it is.

Rule 5 Sunday -- Sheer madness edition

This week's Rule 5 post celebrates those oh so clever young internet models who have found a way to skirt censorship and say, with a straight face later in life, that they may have modeled online in their youth, but technically they never did any "nude" modeling.

Ingenuity . . . it's a beautiful thing. haley model model gabe Christina model

*click on the thumbnails for full-sized images*

Rule 5 Sunday suggested by this.

Hat tips:
Jake Finnegan
The Daley Gator
The Classic Liberal
Say Anything Blog
Proof Positive
American Power
Reaganite Republican
Goodstuff's Cyber World