Incoherent ramblings of an overworked computer geek who rarely has the sense to keep his mouth shut!
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
The End of Time
June 17th. That's it. Cats will lie down with dogs. Whites will quit using the n-word and blacks will stop using honky. Muslims will embrace Christians (but Jews and Catholics will be on their own). Olbermann will hug O'Reilly.
It's no surprise that when it comes to comics I prefer the more off beat. As such I go to SFGate to read Zippy and Bizarro every morning. Only recently I started reading Dan Piraro's blog http://bizarrocomic.blogspot.com/ and of course now I really like him. TBC ran it in their test comic area for a short while but it was too much for the Family Circus/Fred Basset/Snuffy Smith crowd. (Is there no way to keep from wasting dead trees on that shit?)
I loved this one that I saw online but the printed paper did not run it due to that little problem at the SF zoo last Christmas. (you need to go look since the cartoons are set to not allow outside linking).
Lots of good stuff. The official comic site contains an explanation of those little symbols scattered across his comics. http://www.bizarro.com/symbols/index.htm If you're looking there is a number above Dan's signature indicating the number of symbols in that cartoon. Funny the list doesn't have the dynamite stick with the burning fuse which is one of his favorites.
I recently had this discussion with a family member. I often wonder if people realize just how much of a police state we have allowed to be created in this country. So it's time for a list. All these agencies have armed officers with police powers (in many cases only some personnel in these agencies are armed).
FBI ATF DEA Secret Service Immigration Service – Border Patrol Federal Marshall TSA with air Marshall Service National Park Rangers Forest Service Rangers BLM Rangers (that's right, three different agencies for federal land) US Postal Inspectors Military Police – all five branches Federal Prison Service
I've probably missed some but lets go to the state level
CHP State Police (yeah that's a small but separate dept) State Park Rangers County Park Rangers (separate from sheriff here in Kern) State Prisons Sate Parole agents County Sheriffs City Police County Jail Gaurds County Parole agents State/County/City Fire Dept Arson Investigators (most)
Well they were some of the most ludicrous comments Dubba could've made.
I 100% agree with Keith on every thing except his attempt to paint blame on McCain with Bush's stupidity (including the opening clips of Bush and McCain together). The commentary would've have been better without that smear. But Olbermann also kind of loses it in the last minute. That outraged ranting was too much, the point had certainly been made. I did like the last line and that would've made a better impact if it had not been preceded by the intense seething.
Kern County has been tentatively awarded a $100 million state grant to construct 790 beds in a new jail building at Lerdo Jail. ..... Kern County, Youngblood said, will have to come up with $37 million to match the state’s money.
“This is a great opportunity to leverage its dollars with a huge contribution from the state,” said Supervisor Mike Maggard. “And it will help us solve a problem we’ve been fighting for decades. Older parts of our current jail are falling apart. If they are condemned by the state then this jail population will explode on us.” ..... In a March presentation to supervisors, during which they blessed the Sheriff’s Department’s plan to ask the state for the AB 900 money, Kern County Undersheriff Marty Williamson said the new jail building would cost about $143.5 million.
Annual operating costs for the new jail building, Williamson said, is estimated to cost the county $20 million in annual operating expenses once the facility is fully open.
Is someone kidding? $286,000 a bed to build. $25,000 a year per bed to run? This is absurd! Where the hell do these guys get the chutzpah to keep running this by the taxpayers? Every bit of that comes from your pocket. This is a county jail. Sure the sheriff thinks it's cool along with the prevailing wage contractors and the labor unions.
Bureaucracies eventually exist only to employ and give raises to themselves. Schools are another example but I damn well would rather spend that kind of money on students then criminals. Maybe there would be less of the latter if we did.
The only real punishment here goes to the taxpayer.
WOW thirty years. It's always intrigued me that TRS did this country song. And did Mick remember playing in Bakersfield or was he just kinda up on the Bakersfield sound? Frankly I thought they did a better Bakersfield sound then most of the ones from here. Course I really don't care for most CW music, but this one I've liked.
"President Bush announced the rebate checks for at least $600. ... I'm going to use my check to buy enough gas to drive to the bank and cash it. And then maybe back. The rebates were pushed through by the president to help get the economy going. It's kind of like when the mom of the kid nobody likes bakes everyone cupcakes so you can pretend to like him until the cupcakes are gone, and then you go back to giving him wedgies." --Jimmy Kimmel
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