Please don’t feed the animals

I just spent about 10 minutes reading the list of winners for the recent Academy Awards. That’s about all of the effort and energy I invest concerning this annual pageant each year. This event is simply another venue for narcissists to pat themselves on the back and keep their names in the news and faces on the entertainment shows. Viewership declines year after year. This is why I haven't watched the Oscars for several years:

Cult of Celebrity. The whole spectacle of this event is silly. From the preening and parading on the red carpet surrounded by cameras and catty women and gay men (no offense) critiquing designer dresses and fashion faux pas, speaking in hushed reverence as if any of this has any real consequence to our lives. Why some people care so much about lives of celebrities is a mystery to me. If these celebs truly care about the environment as much as they say, they should ditch the private planes and limos, carpool or take public transportation, or better yet stay home and tele/videoconference their acceptance speeches.

The Academy. Ohhh, this hallowed, vaunted cadre of royalty, their identities kept under such tight security even the New York Times won’t print it. The fact that they aren’t **required** to watch every single nomination-related movie tells me all that I need to know about their purported objectivity. It may not be rigged, but there sure is a lot of “influence” bandied about. The whole thing stinks of an “old boys” type of network - just like the Grammy's.

The movies. Sure there are excellent movies out there and like any art form there will be different interpretations for levels of quality. Fine. My beef here is not with the movies themselves, but the way they qualify. For a movie to be nominated in the current year there should be a cutoff date early enough (Nov 1?) to allow for more than 50 people to actually SEE the movie. There should also be a requirement for a certain level of theatrical distribution, not just one private home theater in New York or Hollywood.

The speeches. BORING! We (should) care less about your political views and that you want to thank your gardener, your little princess’s nanny, and your second grade teacher. Just say thanks and get off the stage. Better yet - don't show up at all. Spare us the torture of your riveting menagerie of endless lists of people we've never heard of or care about. If they eliminate the stupid retrospectives and dance production numbers they might be able to keep the show to one hour, not four.

I should just let people have their fun, consume precious resources (money, fuel, energy, food, etc.), and pollute our fragile environment (CO2 emissions from the jets and limos, energy consumption, waste from all of those parties) on something in my opinion is so frivolous, or was that the Super Bowl?

Inner peace and stuff

I picked up my wife from the airport last night, and with her arrival brought a source of calmness to the deconstructive but controlled chaos that is flourishing throughout our house. We're all happy that she is home - for a few days at least.

I don't feel like commenting on anything today since I don't want to cause too many ripples in the karmic continuum.

Here are a couple of images that caught my attention this week. I'm sure it'll rub the left's artificial fur (or is it dog fur?) the wrong way, but that's the fun part.



It seems that the media is constantly salivating for any negative news (they sure print enough of it) concerning our military and Iraq. Like Vietnam, they feel the need to ignore the safety of our troops and the security of our nation in order for them to demonstrate their self-annointed "duty" to shape public policy and public opinion mostly because of their huge egos. Like the steroetypical beauty queen, they want to "make a difference" and encourage "World Peace" - yeah right!



I just love this one because I know that it just makes the liberals fester and stew in their own hatred and misery. Not so you say, liberals love everyone! Ask one about his or her feelings for VP Dick Cheney and you'll experience the radiant heat of their "love" for him. Love indeed... We DO need more leaders like Dick Cheney. I'm tired of these namby-pamby, wimpy, whiny, appeasers, busybodies, and nannies in Congress and state government.

I guess I did have a little to get of my chest.

President Who?

My commute today was not just light, it was so wafer-thin, it only had one side. I didn't realize that today's recently compromised fabrication of a generic remembrance of our nation's leaders was so popular with the private sector. It could also be a sad realization that more and more people work for the non-productive public sector, sucking ever increasing resources from those that actually generate wealth.

Yes, another day off for all of those "underpaid" teachers, administrators, and postal employees. If a private company wants to take the day off, it's their business, but who am I to comment on the working habits of those who are paid with tax dollars forcibly extorted from my personal assets.

As for the honoraries of the holiday, it's not a job that I would want in a million years.

Back on the wagon

It’s truly an addiction, a fatal flaw, a fault, a defect of the human condition – expressing one’s opinion, especially if it dissents from popular consensus.

We had an unfortunate episode recently at a dinner gathering with very good friends where I (and my wife) frequently supported the opposing arguments of the majority of the topics at hand throughout the evening. Our friends are liberals and we’re conservatives. Contrary to perceived liberal dogma and true to actual liberal demonstration of said dogma, our friends weren’t very *tolerant* of our beliefs and dismissed most of our arguments because they didn’t fit their view. To be fair, we did the same thing, passionate debate ensued, and thankfully the pressure valves that maintain our friendships functioned as designed.

We should know better. There is really no possibility that we will change each other’s minds about anything. We’re conservatives living in an increasing and all-encompassing liberal world. I guess we better get with the program and no longer deny the inevitable.

I’ve got to learn to keep my mouth shut, bite my tongue, submit my paperz to the proper authorities when demanded to do so, and be grateful that there are so many people in positions of power who know what’s best for me so I no longer need to think for myself.

Now it's time for me to step back onto the wagon and off into the sunset of the CO2 hellfire of our burning planet.

(please ignore the northeast snowstorms because it doesn’t fit the consensus of global warming and catastrophic planetary destruction)

To my wife: Happy Valentine's Day. I love you!

The new scarlet letter

Go ahead and carve a big “D” on my chest. Parade me about the public square so that my fellow compatriots can look upon my sullen and disheveled face in scorn and ridicule. My crime?

Acting like a penis? Acting stupid? Acting like a canine?

No, something far, far worse than that.

I have been accused of being a heretic to the religion of the environmentalists, a DENIER of man’s influence to global warming, er, “global climate change”. This new and slick redefinition conveniently characterizes ALL climate activity as the result of man’s callous raping of the environment, SUVs, consumption of Big Macs, and George W. Bush.

I’m a DENIER because I’m not absolutely convinced that we’re on this accelerated path to the global catastrophic disaster as it’s packaged to be. Science is not based on consensus and anecdotal data that only supports a theory. My bullshit-o-meter starts to peg when the subject matter is so politicized and research grants are on the line. Remember when the scientific community knew the world was flat? Remember when these same “experts” knew we were exponentially hurling into an ice age in the 1970’s? Remember eggs=good, eggs=bad, eggs=good? Remember all of those predictions of devastating hurricanes the year after Katrina that never happened? How about the frigid weather going on right NOW (without any reference to global warming)?

Call me a cynical, but my suspicions and lack of faith in those that are preaching and parroting this global carnage can be summed up in one word: watermelon. For those who are unfamiliar with the metaphor, that means green (environmentalist) on the outside and red (communist/socialist) on the inside. The thorn in my mind here is the whole follow-the-money aspect about all of this. I do not completely trust the motivations of many of the proponents because underneath the noble surface of taking better care of the planet (good) are potentially numerous layers of social engineering and increased local, state, federal, and global governmental control of our lives. I contend they are using smoke and mirrors to play on the emotions of the general populous for financial gain and power. As for the parrots, compare the ratings for American Idol and the Super Bowl with C-SPAN. Science should not be broken down into soundbites. But then again, I’m a nutcase, conspiracist, and a DENIER of the environmental holocaust.

Stoke the fire, warm up the branding iron, and make it sizzle...

UPDATE (Jan-06-2007)
I just found an article from a top climatologist in Canada that relates nicely with what I've just said. Since he's a fellow DENIER, make sure to digest every blasphemous word with a grain of metaphorical salt. (No natural salt was harvested in the making of this sentence.)

Click HERE to read.

One of my favorite quotes from the article:

"In another instance, I was accused by Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki of being paid by oil companies. That is a lie. Apparently he thinks if the fossil fuel companies pay you have an agenda. So if Greenpeace, Sierra Club or governments pay there is no agenda and only truth and enlightenment?"