Oh no! It's politics!

I never intended to write about politics on this blog, but there is just too much stupidity going on in Washington to ignore. I mean with the health care debate, the Tea Party movement, and now even the Supreme Court has jumped into the fray. What's a lowly blogger to do? Ignore it? I think not! To clarify where I am coming from, I must first explain that I am an independent minded voter. Since there is no Independent party, I generally vote for the lesser of the evils presented to me at election time. I do not think for one minute that all Democrats are Liberals, or all Republicans are Conservatives. If they aspire to work in Washington, I believe they are all equally slimy. I also think the country would be better off with a no party system. This whole two way adversarial system is sooooo tired. Let the slime balls stand on their own two feet without some party backing them up and telling them what to do.

Points to Ponder (aka-Random Ramblings 3)

The Media

Hello. This is your local/national/cable/internet/print media outlet. We regret to inform you that we have just learned that a giant meteor is heading for Earth and we will all be obliterated in less than 24 hours. But before we get to that story, we have breaking news from Florida. It appears Tiger Woods has stubbed his toe. For extensive team coverage we now go to our correspondent Sheila Shallow for a live report...

In a related story, many of you have written and phoned in to complain about our excessive coverage of Tiger Woods and other minor subjects. While we always appreciate your comments, the fact is our ratings go up when we report on these stories. That is what our producers tell us anyway. In short, we are just doing our jobs.

In yet another related story, a billionaire drug kingpin was acquitted today of all charges. It appears the jury bought his defense that "He was just doing his job".

Brittany Murphy

Just had to drop a quick note on the death of this amazing young actress. I have been a fan of hers since I first saw her in a 1996 episode of the TV series Nash Bridges. To say she "nailed the performance" would be a gross understatement. If there were an Oscar for TV performances, she would have been a shoo in. Since then, I have seen everything she has done including her musical performances(thank you You Tube!). She was just one of those actors that you watched no matter what the project was. Gene Hackman is another actor in this category for me. Whether you liked the film, TV show, or whatever, you know their performance alone would be worth watching.

I did not have an affair with Tiger Woods!

There I said it, and boy is it a big relief to have that off my shoulders! I was so afraid someone was going to find out and spill the beans. The rumors were getting so bad that I simply could not stand it any more. Everything from the sly looks and leers, to the whispers behind my back were unbearable! I had to make it all stop. I figured the best way to do that was to make a public statement to all 10 of my fans.

Well it's finally happened. I am officially old.

Actually I am not quite 48, but after watching Wednesday night's CMA show, I am convinced that life is all downhill from here. Before I offer up my reasoning for this revelation, I must provide a little background info. I have been playing guitar and singing(mostly country music) since my early teens. I even had some brief professional experiences in my late teens and early twenties. I did it long enough to realize that I did not want to be a professional musician. At the end of those few years it became too much like work for me. The fun just got sucked right out of it. I was always a pretty good singer, but have forever been a hopeless amateur on the guitar. I do still play on occasion just for fun.

The Fallacy of Genius

It seems that back in high school I screwed up big time. I made the mistake of taking the PSATS at the beginning of the 11th grade. It was actually an elective thing to do back then. I just viewed it as a way to get out of class for a few hours. At any rate, the next I day was summoned to the vice principal's office and was told I needed to take another test. No explanation was given. I was just ushered into another room and told to wait a few minutes. Since I was pulled out of math class, I figured my math teacher was behind this treachery. She was always on my case about never doing the homework, and then acing or nearly acing all her tests. Or could it be that number 2 1/2 pencil I used as a matter of protest? Anyway, after a few minutes I was joined by a few other students and a teacher I did not know. We were given this different looking test with many questions similar to what we had seen on the PSAT. However, unlike the PSAT, we were given 30 minutes to complete this test. Since I was in no hurry to get back to math class, I proceeded to finish the test in 20 minutes or so, and then faked it until the time limit was up. About that time, the bell rang and we were told to proceed to the next class.

Windows 7 is here! - yawn...

Now to be fair, this is not a dig at the quality if Microsoft's new Windows 7 operating system. It is aimed more at the lackluster launch of the product itself. In past years, Microsoft would pull out all the stops when releasing a new OS. The hype machine would be running full bore. But this time, Windows 7 was launched with quite a bit of reserve. Sure there were commercials here and there. There was the ill fated attempt at creating launch parties. Did anybody actually go to one of those? I know I never saw or heard of one locally. Still by any standard, let alone the lofty standards of Microsoft, this was very low key. There are numerous theories as to why this occurred, but two of the most obvious are the lackluster state of the economy, and the fact that during the last big launch involving Windows Vista, Microsoft wound up with tons of well deserved egg on it's face. Now in past years, the latter would not have been a deterrent, but I think combined with the economic downturn, it was just too much for even the mighty Microsoft marketing machine to over come. Some have also surmised, that Microsoft's marketing machine just ain't what it used to be.