Grapes Over Easy

It's simple, really. The internet keeps EVERYTHING for the rest of all time. No matter what it is, why you put it there, or how important it is to remove it, the stuff you put there is always around somewhere.

I don't really care about your MySpace page where you put the photos of you and your friends wrestling in thongs on 8th Ave.

What I do care about is if you put up something, PUT A DATE ON IT. Let people know that this was an article or post from January of 2006 so that when we find it, we realize that there have been 3 OS upgrades and 4 other software choices released since you posted.

And put the date somewhere visible. Not at the end of the article under the ads, footer, privacy, and disclaimer statement. Maybe near the top if possible.

Please. I'm just asking for this one thing.

It's great to have lessons to learn from. But hey! We're American's. Screw you and your easily assembled furniture.

Sweden's economic crisis.

I've heard this and read this several times lately. I don't vote. The system is so screwed up that my vote doesn't make a difference, so I don't vote. I don't vote to protest the way that government always ignores the needs of the people and takes care of its own. Voting is just a way to pander to the people so they think they are in control, so I don't vote.

By this reasoning, would you also say:

Yes, there is a leak in my boat, but the water keeps coming in, so I'm not going to bail.

There is a mouse in my kitchen, but every time I catch one, another shows up. I'm not going to do anything.

I have an infection, but what can I do? There are billions of bacteria and they keep breeding.

Many of us seem to ignore that politicians work for US. We give them the power. We are the boss in this. Yes it is a drag that we don't always get our way. But the strength in this system we have resides not in the power to get your way all the time, but in the ability to voice an opinion and guide the choices that are made. Many of the seemingly powerful people who are out there only have any power because WE give it to them. Their power is bestowed by US, and can be taken away and given to someone else.

It's strange but it is totally true: One vote means nothing. Just like one snowflake or rain drop means nothing. One ant means nothing. One bacteria means nothing. But just like all these things, hundreds and thousands and millions are incredibly powerful.

If you don't vote, you are giving away the power to do anything, to whomever has the balls to stand up and accept that power. An unused vote delivers even more power than a used vote. It gives the power to rule but attaches no strings or oversight.

We are in a difficult time and we need to decide how to get out of it.

I vote.

I don't always get what I want.

I vote.

The people who get in office often abuse their power, but we can hold them accountable.

I vote.

I might not get anything for it today, tomorrow or next week, but I decide what kind of world my son will inherit.

I vote.

Aimee took photos of all the soccer team this week. Here are the photos link

Would it be possible to set up a photo site that would be able to take all these photos, put them in little frames so they look like trading cards, and then parents would be able to order a set of trading cards for their team?

I think the kids could have fun trying to collect their league. Especially the little ones. Also, wouldn't it be fun to have a youth team trading card for some far in the future super star? "I've got he David Beckham card from when he was 8-years old."

Wonder if a store that carries trading cards would be interested in becoming some kind of sponsor for it, since it would get more kids interested in the whole trading card scene. Promos for comic and card shops could be customized per zip code.

Need to ask Jeff what he thinks about printing processes and card stocks. Wonder if Augie would want to be in on this one?

Would a group like Colorado Fusion be interested in offering this as part of their deal. They are a pretty organized group and could give it get a good foothold.

Then eventually, when the idea is shown successful (as it most certainly will be!), trademark it, package it up and sell it to Shutterfly so they can offer it on their site.

Thoughts?

What an awesome ad. Clear, to the point, and honest.

Notice how you can barely see the family from the smoke and pollution caused by the coal fired power plant. Ahhh, refreshing.

NYT op-ed

Ignorance must really be bliss. How else, over so many years, could the G.O.P. get away with ridiculing all things liberal?

Troglodytes on the right are no respecters of reality. They say the most absurd things and hardly anyone calls them on it. Evolution? Don’t you believe it. Global warming? A figment of the liberal imagination.

Liberals have been so cowed by the pummeling they’ve taken from the right that they’ve tried to shed their own identity, calling themselves everything but liberal and hoping to pass conservative muster by presenting themselves as hyper-religious and lifelong lovers of rifles, handguns, whatever.

So there was Hillary Clinton, of all people, sponsoring legislation to ban flag-burning; and Barack Obama, who once opposed the death penalty, morphing into someone who not only supports it, but supports it in cases that don’t even involve a homicide.

Anyway, the Republicans were back at it last week at their convention. Mitt Romney wasn’t content to insist that he personally knows that “liberals don’t have a clue.” He complained loudly that the federal government right now is too liberal.

“We need change, all right,” he said. “Change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington.”

Why liberals don’t stand up to this garbage, I don’t know. Without the extraordinary contribution of liberals — from the mightiest presidents to the most unheralded protesters and organizers — the United States would be a much, much worse place than it is today.

There would be absolutely no chance that a Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton or Sarah Palin could make a credible run for the highest offices in the land. Conservatives would never have allowed it.

Civil rights? Women’s rights? Liberals went to the mat for them time and again against ugly, vicious and sometimes murderous opposition. They should be forever proud.

The liberals who didn’t have a clue gave us Social Security and unemployment insurance, both of which were contained in the original Social Security Act. Most conservatives despised the very idea of this assistance to struggling Americans. Republicans hated Social Security, but most were afraid to give full throat to their opposition in public at the height of the Depression.

“In the procedural motions that preceded final passage,” wrote historian Jean Edward Smith in his biography, “FDR,” “House Republicans voted almost unanimously against Social Security. But when the final up-or-down vote came on April 19 [1935], fewer than half were prepared to go on record against.”

Liberals who didn’t have a clue gave us Medicare and Medicaid. Quick, how many of you (or your loved ones) are benefiting mightily from these programs, even as we speak. The idea that Republicans are proud of Ronald Reagan, who saw Medicare as “the advance wave of socialism,” while Democrats are ashamed of Lyndon Johnson, whose legislative genius made this wonderful, life-saving concept real, is insane.

When Johnson signed the Medicare bill into law in the presence of Harry Truman in 1965, he said: “No longer will older Americans be denied the healing miracle of modern medicine.”

Reagan, on the other hand, according to Johnson biographer Robert Dallek, “predicted that Medicare would compel Americans to spend their ‘sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was like in America when men were free.’ ”

Scary.

Without the many great and noble deeds of liberals over the past six or seven decades, America would hardly be recognizable to today’s young people. Liberals (including liberal Republicans, who have since been mostly drummed out of the party) ended legalized racial segregation and gender discrimination.

Humiliation imposed by custom and enforced by government had been the order of the day for blacks and women before men and women of good will and liberal persuasion stepped up their long (and not yet ended) campaign to change things. Liberals gave this country Head Start and legal services and the food stamp program. They fought for cleaner air (there was a time when you could barely see Los Angeles) and cleaner water (there were rivers in America that actually caught fire).

Liberals. Your food is safer because of them, and so are your children’s clothing and toys. Your workplace is safer. Your ability (or that of your children or grandchildren) to go to college is manifestly easier.

It would take volumes to adequately cover the enhancements to the quality of American lives and the greatness of American society that have been wrought by people whose politics were unabashedly liberal. It is a track record that deserves to be celebrated, not ridiculed or scorned.

Self-hatred is a terrible thing. Just ask that arch-conservative Clarence Thomas.

Liberals need to get over it.

Apparently God sent her my email address.

Does this mean that God is my PR guy?

I wonder if God knows my twandle?


Anyway, here is her email if you can help:

zdza@eircom.net
or
elizebethdonax1@ig.com.br
or
shifalika9@yahoo.com
or
sisteralisadona01@hotmail.fr

All these were listed, so I don't know how to get back to her, but I'm sure that with God involved, it's certain to go swimmingly.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am Mrs Alisa Donna from serrie-loene writing you from Cotonou, I beleive by God's grace I got yourcontact in confidence After asking for God's directions,Despart I never disclose why I needed your contact to any body.

I wish to know if you can assist us in by removing and handling both our fund of $5.5Million (Five million and five hundred thousand U.S. Dollarsand invest Presently in your land of business,

the fund is still in the deplomatick delevery Security servicess,where my late husband depositedit for safe keeping and my husband never disclosed the content to the deplomatick delievery security servecess ,
he only decleard it as "personal/family treasure"because he do not want the company to know the content of thebox's. Since you are involved in associated business in your country.

I and my son will love if we will invest our fund in your business
there, because we do not know any body overseas,and we don' t want to do anything here in Africa.

I and my son are in need of a God fearing person who will assist us very well in this fund that we are about to invest overseas, where we will invest it properly with the person's advice.Actually I do notwant involvement of any African because of our safty,

they killed my husband becouse of his money.If you canassist us receive this fund, kindly send to me your phone number with fax,and your full name and addressfor us to get you approved as our beneficiary,

because we want to finalize this in five or six days from today. Please let me know if you are interested to assist us so that I will send to you phone number of my son for you to call him and discuss on the percentage we will offer you also send you the aggreement which my late husband deposited the consignment with. Hope to receive your reply today.


Yours faithfully, From
Mrs Alisa.dona

Have you ever broken open a peach pit? I just did. There is a little seed inside. Blew my mind. And the kicker? That seed smells like a bottle of Amaretto was spilled in there. Who knew that peaches grew from drops of Amaretto?

I always thought the pit was just a seed. Turns out it is a shell over a seed of Amaretto.

Amazing.