Cynicallous

A light, airy, effervescent, blog of grave consequence. (NOT!) Dedicated to those of us who must respond to negative stimuli by Chernobyling (entombing in concrete) our innermost thoughts.

Name:
Location: Slaughter, Louisiana, United States

A semi-gruntled corporate reliability engineer trying to make ends meet while keeping my wife happy, and myself out of the asylum.

Friday, March 30, 2007

I hate Alec Baldwin.

WTF.

I am writing this to express disgust with the media. The media and hollywood types are so stupid they don't even see when they are doing they're own cause a dis-service.

A brave girl, Resha Kane, enlisted in the military and passed basic. For some reason, the New York Times decided to do a Page 1 story on the sendoff she received "when she was sent to Iraq." Noting that she just turned 18 and figuring , as I am wont to do, that she hadn't yet finished her training to be considered able to be sent overseas, I dug a little deeper. Sure enough the NYT was making a big deal about an 18 year old soldier being sent to her training base in the states to PREPARE for going to Iraq.

And knowing what I do about the military, there is a better than average possibility that she currently has NO IDEA where she will be sent anyway.

So, where was the NYT when my two kids were sent to their training bases?

But I digress.

Alec Baldwin read the NYT story and was moved to help the girl out, so now he's volunteered to add onto the $37,000 Gi Bill the girl so she can complete her education.

Isn't that precious.

My biggest beef with all of the coverage came when I read this paraphrased quote from the girl, "Kane, a chemical operations specialist in the Army, said she wants to be a biochemist but is not sure what university she wants to attend once she leaves the military in three years."

GOD DAMN IT.

I can't believe that even now we still have idiots like this thinking that the military is just a ticket to a free education. Don't you dorks realize that this is serious shit and you will probably have to kill people and maybe be killed yourself in this endeavor? I'm all for recruitment and firmly stand behind our military and their mission, (if not necessarily the overall play-calling from the top.) but these kids need to be realistic. The military doesn't give a shit about your future education. They expect you to do as you're told and hope you will live to talk about it so they won't have to recruit your replacement. If that attitude seems cold and calculated, so be it. There should be no room for touchy-feely bullshit in the military.

Now, with Mr. Baldwin seeming to say that paying for a college education is a good reason to join the military, (beyond the fact that we are sending too many people to college these days anyway), he is encouraging more naive kiddies to treat recruitment as a college fund. Given his views of this administration, I'm surprised if he was intending to be a recruitment tool.

I had hoped that the current conflict would have weeded out the less gung-ho of the enlistees, but it would seem I set my expectations too high.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Thistle Show 'em

I don't know where these things came from but they weren't anywhere this thick last year. Sheesh!
Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Let's Tie a Few Threads Together, Shall We?

With Rudy Giuliani polling well, along with John McCain, and now Big Fred Thompson possibly throwing his hat into the ring, there is much speculation as to whether America is ready for its first BALD president since Ike.

Obviously, since the infamous Kennedy-Nixon debate, the only thing that matters in politics today is the quality of a candidates coif. (I apologize for not coming up with a better alliteration than candidates.)

Also, over the last week, we have lost Blogger and columnist Cathy Seipp to cancer, Elizabeth Edwards was diagnosed with a relapse and now Tony Snow has relapsed as well. The liberal reactions to each of these events were startlingly different.

As Ms. Seipp lay dying in her hospital bed, some internet stalker-troll spoofed her web-site and trashed the lady and her family with a posting of such filth that I won't bother to link to it. (You can find it if you feel like searching.)

Some moonbat DJ from SoCal posted on a popular blog that given who he works for and what he believes, it's no wonder that Tony Snow's cancer returned.

And of course, the ever courageous John and Elizabeth were generally lionized for their courage in determining to continue their nomination battle.

Now, how will I tie all of this together you ask?

With one question, that I will ask.

What if the bald candidate wasn't male?

What if Hillary was stricken with a minor lump in her breast and had it successfully removed as happens very routinely these days and was required to go through Chemo to ensure a full recovery? How would the media react to THAT first bald president?

Wow. All of that and I didn't make one Britney Spears joke. I'm proud of myself.

TAAAAA-DAAAAAAA....

New List! (If anyone's new, this is the current list of people upon whom I wouldn't pee if they were ablaze.)

*UOM = Urinator of the Moment

*10) Paris Hilton - Because now we know who was responsible for her (initial) deflowering.
(Scroll down to the second blurb.)

9) Bob Barker

8) Garth Brooks

7) Gilbert Godfried

6) Rosie O'Donnell

5) Barry Bonds

4) Fidel Castro

3) Mike Tyson

2) O.J. Simpson

1) Michael Jackson

States I've driven in.


Now I need to get to Florida. The Northwest can wait.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Moslem Engineering.

I've often wondered why you don't really see much evidence of any Significantly Moslem societies developing a cure for a disease or doing yeoman's work toward advancing astrophysics or something even as rudimentary as building a large bridge.

Turns out, they didn't even realize that if you are not overly proficient at civil engineering, you really shouldn't build enormous sewer holding ponds that are substantially deeper than the elevation of the roofs of your tallest buildings. (I guess its tough to keep the engineering turnover in a society low if the main product produced is bomb-vests.)

Four Dead After Sewage Floods Town in Gaza Strip

Lets see how long it takes for the media to make this the Israelis's fault.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Tom Cruise better watch his back....

Al Gore may be heading his way.

Does it seem to anyone else that the global environmental catastrophe crowd is starting to look a lot like Scientology?

Even the freaking weather channel is starting to annoy me with all the global warming bullshit they're spewing. You can't watch the weather for more than 15 minutes without some moron proselytizing about the coming man-made apocalypse that is all America's fault.

Global Warming idiocy is the latest 'religion' for un-critical non-thinkers. Al Gore is the latest incarnation of L. Ron Hubbard. An Inconvenient Truth is the next Dianetics. The only thing missing is the belief that alien spirits inhabit the planet.

Global Warming is a religion for draining the wallets of guilty suburban atheists too worried about the carbon content of their own flatulence to be concerned about a real religion that is hell bent on destroying all Christians and Jews.

All I can say is this: When the morons like Algore and the Weather Channel staff can predict next week's weather or even the severity of the next hurricane season correctly, I might consider listening to what they say will happen in fifty friggin' years.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

And there was much rejoicing...

yaayyyy.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

I'm starting to wonder...

Why I bother to still buy American cars.

Our 2006 Durango picked up a rock at some point that broke the lens on the driver's side fog light. I obtained a replacement from a dealer on Ebay.

I finally got around to changing it this morning. I swear this P.O.S. was designed by the same team that did my 1978 F250.

In order to remove the light, you have to nearly remove the entire front bumper cover. Conveniently, the bumper cover is attached with plastic one-time-use fasteners. After a trip to the parts store for some decent fasteners, I had it back together.

How frigging hard would it have been to make the opening in the bumper cover a half inch larger so the light could be removed from the front?

Friday, March 16, 2007

Inventing for lazy parents

I just saw an ad for some special paint marker things for kids. They markers only write on "special"paper. Not anywhere else. The ad showed a 2ish year old writing on a white wall. Then it panned out to show the special paper and how it doesn't harm the wall all the while the "mother" beams with pride at the "art". When did it get so freaking hard to kick your kid's ass for doing something stupid like writing on a wall that an engineer had to develop invisible paint?

Feh. I can't wait until that same rat finds one of daddy's sharpies and pastes the side of his car with it.

Inventing for lazy parents

I just saw an ad for some special paint marker things for kids. The markers only write on "special"paper. Not anywhere else. The ad showed a 2-ish year old scribbling on a white wall. Then it panned out to show the special paper and how it doesn't harm the wall all the while the "mother" beams with pride at the "art". When did it get so freaking hard to kick your kid's ass for doing something stupid like writing on a wall that an engineer had to develop invisible paint?

Feh. I can't wait until that same rat finds one of daddy's sharpies and pastes the side of his car with it.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Home

Just landed at BTR. Looks good to me.

Not bad

One way flight, SMF through IAH to BTR on Continental $145. (including all the taxes and fees. And they served a hot meal with a salad. Now if the weather in Houston will cooperate.

Getting ready to head out...

On to Sacramento to catch my flight back to the swamp early this afternoon. Maybe I'll catch a glimpse of the Governator while I'm waiting?

One of the few downers out here..

Gas prices are stupid-high. I'm assuming it's mainly tax related as diesel is still about the same as everywhere else. I'm talking $2.93 on base and $3.13+ off. Some areas are $3.30+ if you're in a more isolated spot. (That's for regular, by the way.)

Monday, March 12, 2007

Something else I find interesting...

The rotating beacon here sorta has three lights. One side is blue and 180 out from that are two whites about 10 degrees apart. Maybe that means military air field?

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Sausalito

Drove through to find an ATM. Beautiful little quaint town across the bay from SF. Kinda reminded me of Noank, CT. First time I've ever seen two brand new black Ferraris driving around within the span of 10 minutes.

Lombard Street

We went into San Francisco since we had to drive across the bridge. $5 toll, by the way. We were just going to see the marina. Then I saw the sign. "Lombard Street." Having grown up listening to old Bill Cosby records, I zipped across the highway and dove into downtown. It's another one of those places that can't be adequately described without actually being there. Lombard is exactly like Bill described it. Straight down with 90 degree switchbacks and flowers to honor the people who died after drifting backwards into the bay. There are other streets that are straight, but nearly as impressive. So steep, that you can't see the street in front of you until your front wheels break over the top. No phone pics as I was trying to not do the,"come around idiot, come around" stunt at the stopsigns at the tops of the intersections. We got several regular pics though.

Beautiful city. Well designed and very clean. Another place I'd like to visit again.

And on the way back to the base...

Wow.

Another you just have to be here view.
Golden Gate with Alcatraz & the Oakland bridge in the background.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

First impression

Travis AFB is beautiful. I'm very impressed with the condition and quality of the facility.

Travis, AFB

Front Gate. Just got here. Weather is beautiful.

San Joachin valley, 90 miles south of San Francisco

Friday, March 09, 2007

Grand Canyon continued

Absolutely amazing place. TV can't do it justice. We will come back when we can spend more time.

Yep. It's grand.

Flagstaff, AZ - 7000' ASL

And more trains going by than at Elwood Blues's apartment.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

20 miles outside of Flagstaff...

Here's a shot on I40 of Bobby Labonte's car hauler heading to Las Vegas. The hauler can't be stock. I was following it up a couple pretty good grades at 80+. Nice weather out here.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Amarillo by evening, (& the old 96er to boot.)

OK, so it's only a 72er, but it's free if you eat it within an hour. And they have a free shuttle service from anywhere in the area to and from the restaurant. We saw signs for this joint starting just north of Dallas. it's almost as silly as Wall Drug. (But with steak, I guess.)