You can't be Sirius!

Last week was my first full week with Sirius Satellite Radio. It paid for itself entertainment wise in the 5-6 days I actually used it. I rarely spend time in my car during on the weekend so this is essentially a Monday to Friday investment and even then, it is only during commuting times. There is a way to hook it up in the house, but I have not even tried. In the interest of full disclosure it was No Dad of Consequence that put it in the car for me, saving me some money. I am not what one would call a handy guy.

I grew up listening to Howard Stern. From the time I was 13 years old, so 21 years or so, intermittently when I lived overseas, Howard has been a part of my morning. My school morning, my commute, whatever, Howard and the gang have made me laugh or grossed me out. There have been times he has gone too far and I have turned him off, but for the most part, I am a big fan. Traffic on Route 80 and Howard Stern’s coverage helped define 9/11 for me.

When I moved down south to Atlanta one big problem was there was nothing to listen to on the radio. It was all mediocre, with no edge. I took to listening to Bill O’Reilly on my lunch, partly because I like to know what the enemy is up to and partly because I knew I would hear actual opinion and not watered down waffling which is basically all that is available around here. Unless you listen to the Christian stations, of course.

So, the last 7 days or so of commuting with Sirius has been an absolute joy. Traffic? Yeah, but who cares, traffic means longer time in the car listening to the radio. The ride to work, obviously I am locked in as to what I am going to listen to, but the ride home is really fun as well. I spend some time listening to Shade 45 which is the Eminem programmed rap station. I listen to 104 which is the uncensored comedy channel. If you are a Bill Hicks fan this is very cool, because they play his stuff all the time. I never heard him until recently, but apparently he was like the comedian’s comedian. I have even spent some time listening to the Howard 100 News team which is a group of very professional reporters reporting on the goings on of not only Howard but his band of idiots as well. I can only take this in small doses though as the overwhelming arrogance of it all is a little disturbing.

In other news:

Could Bode Miller be a bigger buffoon? I know that the rest of the world hates the USA, but do we need to play in to every stereotype they have about us? Bode Miller was the best skier in the world in 2005. In less than 60 days he transformed himself into a global joke. Dan Patrick made a great point on ESPN Radio today. He said the Winter Olympics were like a bad reality TV show and frankly American Idol was more entertaining.




Very cool new discovery in Egypt

Spring Training ahhhh… is upon us.

What would you do with 256 million dollars?

Hillary striking out at the devil, I mean Karl Rove. Rove said today that Hillary would win the democratic nomination but lose the general election.

This post is incredibly dirty

This is REALLY IMPORTANT. That Georgia has the 48th ranked schools in the nation, not as important. Official State Dirt, phew, thank G-d they cleared that up. Here is a mildly interesting explanation of why Georgia’s dirt is red.

No 1 of Consequence

Pro choice? Not in South Dakota! Government oppression and what the Wi-Fi?

The government has no right to infringe on the medical choices of women under any circumstances. The government should not be in the medical business unless it is going to start providing health care to the close to ten million American children that suffer needlessly without it. What will it take before the population reacts to this up-swell in legislated pseudo morality?

There was a recent comment on this blog that essentially said, ‘Who cares about the wiretapping?” There are two arguments that go along with that. One is that we need to trade some of our freedoms in order to be more secure as a society. The other is it is not that big a deal and there are more important things to worry about. To the first I give you Benjamin Franklin, who said, “They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.” To the other I say it is a daisy chain to fascism. If we don’t halt the slide away from personal freedom now, we may never be able to again. How far are we from a suspension of due process in order to fight terror? Oh wait, we are already there, the government is listening to us without first getting approval from the courts and showing probable cause. How is this not important? At the very least, why aren’t we asking a special prosecutor to investigate whether laws were broken by the White House and The President? We spent something like 30 million dollars to find out the Clintons made a bad land deal and former President Clinton likes to get head. Isn’t it worth a little cash to find out if President Bush and Vice President Cheney broke the law and wiped their asses with our freedom? I think so, considering we are spending 80 billion a month or more in Iraq.

This is really disturbing. Can we please see some data before we start freaking people out? The real problem is, what if this Canadian college is right? Every time we walk into Panera, Starbucks, and our freaking houses we could be exposing ourselves to harmful radio waves. “Hey Honey, I am going to work.” “Don’t forget your radiation suit dear.” At least I don’t carry a cell phone.

In other news, a bad movie turned real life crime in England.

No 1 of Consequence

Wanted: Fox to guard the henhouse

This country has to do business. It is that simple. We need markets for our goods and services and we need goods and services for our markets. We are involved in international commerce. I am a pluralist by nature, meaning I have the ability to accept more than one idea. However, accepting the idea that it is OK to sell off major ports or any ports for that matter to a company owned by the government of the United Arab Emirates is lunacy. The UAE is one of the more stable Arab countries and they have been fairly friendly to the US in the past. However, if you read the article linked above and many others you can find on the subject you see that the UAE harbored 9/11 terrorists and is a major transit hub for illicit nuclear materials. I am not in favor of the government involving itself in commerce for the most part, but I think you have to draw the line somewhere and for me, this is it. Ocean freight is the easiest way to smuggle anything on this planet. I really am not interested in giving the keys to the front, side, back and basement doors of the country to people that may or may not be in bed with the people who want to kill us all.

No 1 of Consequence

Back from a brief respite

OK, I have returned. I apologize for the layoff. Those of you who know me know why, those of you who don’t know me, suffice it to say, life is beautiful.

A lot has happened in the last two weeks but the first thing I want to tell you is this, it doesn’t freaking matter that Dick Cheney shot someone. This is what our press chooses to get excited about? I mean we have no bid contracts for billions of dollar being gifted to his cronies at Halliburton and everyone shrugs their shoulders. We have an administration spying on its citizenry and the press says, oh well, instead of screaming for a special prosecutor. But oh beware, the VP is on a hunting trip accidentally shoots his buddy and reports it to the local press. This ladies and gentleman is a hanging offense. Forget the fact that this administration shits on democracy and due process, forget the fact that there is significant evidence of election tampering in Florida and Ohio, forget all of those things, but don’t forget about the hunting accident. No siree bob! The hunting accident is really REALLY important. Members of the national press are the biggest bunch of complicit bitches out there. They are failing the American people far worse than the government is right now. They have the power to bring public pressure to bear and choose not to. They are guilty by inaction.

On to much less important things. I watched the NBA slam dunk contest for the first time in about 10 years. Who cares? Usually not me, but this year No Dad of Consequence was visiting me in the ATL for the first time and we were shooting the shit and having some laughs. We popped on the dunk contest to see if there was anything worth caring about. I used to be a HUGE NBA fan, but the game seems to have passed me by. After watching little Nate Robinson dunk by leaping completely over Spud Webb and watching Andre Iguodala dunk after taking an off the backside of the backboard alley oop pass from Allan Iverson I may have an inkling of interest in the NBA again. They were two of the coolest dunks I have ever witnessed.

The Jets are on the verge of cutting Chad Pennington. Thank goodness. The Jets suck. They are going to suck, they may always suck and I love them anyway. Pennington is a guy who captured the imagination of Jets fans because he was smart, a little brash and seemed to be very accurate in his passing. The other players seemed to love him and this made us hope, for a moment that we found our guy, our QB, the one that would lead us to the promised land. Then, of course, because they are the Jets, we found out his shoulder was made of angel hair pasta and was held together by congealed Alfredo sauce. Neither of these things are conducive to long term health. Chad, we loved you, but you were the same as all the rest, not there when we really needed you.

I am a huge Olympics fan. No Wife of Consequence makes fun of me for being the only man in America that remotely gives a crap about the winter Olympics. She is correct, the winter games are not nearly as compelling as the summer, of course it might be because we really aren’t that good at winter sports that I am not nearly as intrigued. Also, I think since everyone is so cold and covered up all the time the whole thing is kind of off putting. How can you root for people when you can’t see their faces? NBC tries to make up for this of course by giving you every athlete’s back story, but come on.

Pitchers and Catchers baby! Baseball will soon be here to whisk us into the summer.

No 1 of Consequence