h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've got the coolest cat I've ever had now. When I'm at home he acts like my own daemon (yes, I'm reading Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials). I mean, he follows me every where I go nearly constantly.

I think he even gets jealous of the attention I give my lap top computer.

Oh, and he loves my two dogs as well. He says "hello" to them at the door when I bring them in.

Alright... back to stupidity. This time it's coming from 23% of my fellow Texans.

In a University of Texas poll, 23% of Texans believe that Barack Obama is a muslim. WTF?

10 - 11% nationwide believe it. So why are there twice as many morons in my state?

I've seen it in action. A few weeks ago I was at the pub and I mentioned something about how much my retirement accounts had lost. Before I knew it someone was saying how much more will be lost if Obama wins. I asked why he thought it would be worse if Obama is president. He just replied, "Cuz he's a muslim!"

Most of the others at the bar agreed with the idiot.

I replied, "WHAT?... He's NOT a muslim, but why do you think so?"

He says, "He went to a muslim school. He's a muslim."

I wish I'd replied "Did going to a public school make you a pube?"

Instead I replied, "So, you've forgotten all about his crazy preacher and your going with 'he's a muslim'... NOT that that would make a difference, hell it would probably mean he'd be more religiously tolerant but... and Hey, there's NO religious requirements for being president and... but... WHY AM I ARGUING WITH YOU IDIOTS?"



True story

There are plenty who think he's a radical socialist. Firstly, how on earth did they come to that conclusion? Secondly, exactly how much do they know about socialism? (answer - little or nothing or they wouldn't say that). Thirdly, what's wrong with democratic socialism?

Since the Reagan administration the conservative party spin doctors and campaign puppet masters, like Karl Rove and Lee Atwater before him, have waged a war on the political language. 'Liberal' is now an insult, 'socialism' is equated with communism and phrases like 'family values' have a list of connotations as long as your arm. They've adopted a binary mentality and inculcated it into our society. If you're not for us, your a'gin us. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. "Patriotism" now equates to jingoistic xenophobia. Therefore, if you're not a racist redneck, you're not a patriot.

So, if you're not for giving the corporations and the wealthiest 10% every tax break and subsidy you can, you're a anti-American socialist pinko subversive.

And this new attack using the phrase "redistribution of wealth"... HA!

No matter which party wins there will be a redistribution of wealth. It's just a choice of do you want to steal from the rich and give to the poor or steal from the poor and give to the rich?

Where did the phrase 'redistribution of wealth' come from in this recent spat? Did McCain dream it up or did Obama let slip three words that have been spun and which he ought to have been more circumspect about. I know it's about his plans to increase taxes for the wealthy and cut them for the less well off, but did he ever say 'redistribution of wealth' when he was talking about said plans? And what else is he going to do with the money shaved off the wealthy apart from give the rest of us (my annual income isn't within a country mile of the US average) a few pennies more in our wage packet? Any talk of using it to rebuild all the social programmes that have been decimated in the past eight years or more? Any talk of helping society's most vulnerable? Enriching lives by giving money back to libraries and suchlike? I'm a careful spender - I have some savings and a CD and 401(K) (that's now worth a lot less thanks to the greed and selfishness of the people who caused this current mess, as are my savings as interest rates go down). I don't mind if some of the tax cuts Barack Obama wants to give me go to help others less fortunate in the way of programmes to give them a better quality of life.

Damn, I must be a socialist pinko commie subversive.

OK... So, you wanna get fit but you find it a bit dull running on your treadmill in the basement staring at the dull walls that never change?

Don't you wish you could take your treadmill outside and do your running outdoors and get a change of scenery?

Well, now you can!

http://www.burbia.com/node/2113


Coming soon, the solar powered torch!

You just made beer come out of my nose

you socialist freedom fighting radical mussleum communist socialist democratic parlimentarialn fasciest tred-mill running neo liberalist marxist femanist prolatarianist federalist terrorist freedom-fry-eating-zenophobic pasionist beer swilling the beer that just came out of my nose may have dammaged my knackered keybaord Oh dear....

No, your posts are no more unintelligible than usual, 2legs

Apparently I type better and make less spelling mistakes whilst nearly unable to stand or sit down due to alcohol that glass of 8% Quack... however its spelt which I had at gone 3 AM I think was a bad idea.... judgeing by how I felt at 8.30 when I got up this morning

OK... here's another idiotic excuse from a criminal.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28142426

This man killed a Houston police officer during a foot chase. He was running from the officer after he fled from a routine traffic stop. He ran into an apartment complex, hid around a corner and shot the officer as he followed him. Then he was seen by witnesses to walk up and shoot him in the head several more times. The prosecutors claim that officer Abernathy was shot 4 times.

The suspect claimed in court that he tripped and the gun accidentally went off.


FOUR TIMES?


Of course, this pales in comparison to the national news story of the Illinois governor who was offering up Obama's senate seat to the highest bidder. What makes this extra special is that he knew he was under investigation for similar corruption, offering up appointments for campaign contributions and kickbacks, but used own phone to talk about the senate position saying, "I've got this thing and it's golden, and I'm just not giving it up for nothing. I'm not gonna do it,".

Wow. Mayor Daley would be proud. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_J._Daley

Celebrity Stupidity:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29766136/

On Natasha Richardson's death:

FTA - "Lindsay Lohan has lent her voice to those mourning the loss of actress Natasha Richardson.

Lohan, who as a pre-teen actress starred alongside Richardson in the 1998 film, “The Parent Trap,” released a statement to Access Hollywood on Wednesday evening.

“She was a wonderful woman and actress and treated me like I was her own,” Lohan’s statement read. “I didn’t see much of her over the years but I will miss her.”



STFU!

Jesus Christ, woman! No matter what your publicist and media sources like "Access Hollywood" tell you, the world does NOT revolve around you.

A brilliant and classy actress died. We don't care how that makes you feel. You are a train wreck. Go snort another line and drink another magnum and go away.

More stupidity on the international diplomatic front

OK... Hillary Clinton gives the Russian Foreign minister a novelty "reset" button that actually says "overcharge".

That news took some of the limelight off of Obama giving Gordon Brown a set of DVDs. Compared to a pen holder made of the wood from a slave ship DVDs seem pretty cheesy.

Well, they were even less thoughtful that.

It turns out the DVDs he gave them are Region 1 and unviewable on the player at no. 10 (unless someone wants to show Brown how to avoid DRM).

*AHEM* Most new DVD players in the UK these days are multi-region/multi format, and most household appliances have for years (like, since I was a kid - yeah, that long ago ) been switchable between 120 volts and 240 volts. Neither of those two useful factors are applicable to most US DVD players or appliances.

Indeed. If you take your UK mobile to the US you can indeed charge it with a UK charger, but it takes twice as long

Mind you, Gordon Clown probably has a Woolies Worth It! DVD player (stingy git) and I doubt if that's got Region 1 on it

Life imitating OnStar parody

From the Orlando Sentinel:

>>
ORLANDO, Fla. — A 911 dispatcher had to tell a caller how to unlock her car on Sunday.

A woman called Kissimmee, Fla., police to say she was locked inside her car at a suburban drug store.

“My car will not start. I’m locked inside my car,” the unidentified woman said.

“Nothing electrical works. And it’s getting very hot in here, and I’m not feeling well.”

The dispatcher asked the woman if she was able to manually pull the lock up on the door.

The woman said she would try, and then, she said, “Yes, I got the door open.”
<<

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrt2q6Mpeyc )

This isn't precisely "stupidity" but it is a glaring oversight.

Earlier this year, nanny software was installed on the web servers here at work. (Hey, that's fine. I can understand that).

I was just reading an article on Science on the Web and learned about NASA's own youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/reelnasa

This is nominally restricted by NASA's nanny software. (I can get to it, but I get redirected to their "Access Verification Required" page first.)

http://imgur.com/1m7dn.jpg





I hope this one's true...



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http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=2007_4308918

IT IS!!! Not only that it's LOCAL.
I ate at Gabacho's restaurant TODAY. (I had the stuffed avocado.)