Waste Mangement

Quick and Dirty

I looked at my toilet the other day, and it has an ink stamp on it, 1.6 gpf. That is 1.6 gallons per flush. I also thought about Sheryl Crow, and her proclamation on earth day that we should all wipe with only one piece of toilet paper:

“I think we are an industrious enough people that we can make it work with only one square per restroom visit, except, of course, on those pesky occasions where 2 to 3 could be required.” (link goes to her site where this quote was taken from).

I coupled this with a recent article I read about a toilet paper dispenser from Kimberly-Clark that only releases 5 sheets at a time. What is driving these people to promote cutbacks on basic hygiene products? The reason I thought of this was because the plunger was next to my toilet, and there is a process that goes into effect when using the plunger.

First, the toilet must be used, and a pile left behind. Wipe and flush (1). Even with minimal to no paperwork, the toilet is then clogged. The next thing? Another flush (2) to see if it will go down again. Then what? The plunger comes out and flush (3). Sticking the plunger into the murky depths to coax the load down and into the plumbing line commences. And another flush or two (4-5) to take care of the cloudy remainder and to ensure that the line is working properly, and then a rinse flush (6) to clean the plunger off. What do we have here? 6 flushes? 6 x 1.6 = 9.6 gallons. What if the old 3 gallon flusher was in place? 2 flushes, tops, with no plunger (for a regular load) = 6 gallons. Way to go, environmentalists, I now use more time, flushes, and water with the “water saver” toilet than I would have with the old faithful design.

Liberals have fought to keep the government out of our bedrooms through their abortion debate. Why are these same people so interested in what goes on in our bathrooms?

Catholic Dogged Me (click here for story)

Hypocrisy from a schmuck.

Wow. Pope Benedict says other Christian religions just pretenders, not true faiths. I guess that politics, corruption, and child molestation, then religion should be the order of the day.

I have to be honest about something. 2 1/2 weeks ago, we were by a Catholic church in town. There were people pouring out of church on Saturday evening, and something snapped in my head. My wife was in the car, and I went on a 20 minute tirade about Catholics. But it wasn't for her benefit. I wasn’t even talking to her. I was just bitching to the air...

I just don't like that faith, and it's because of crap like this. The entire faith reminds me of my extended family, and I'm really sick of both. Both the church and the family are arrogant, passive-aggressive, and worst of all, falsely pious. Catholics and my family put on a front for our Lord for about 1 hour a week, if that, then live their lives as they see fit for the next 6 7/8 days, until church again. I'm not saying all Catholics are like that, but I'm willing to bet that the ones coming out of that church on Saturday probably bear more similarities to my description than they do to truly religious people.

I don't know that for a fact, and I could be really wrong about them, but all I have to go on is my upbringing in the Catholic church, and my family around me. These judgments come from the way my extended family behaves. It is as if their participation in religion is just like their participation in a play... they act the part, as long as they think people are watching, then go about their consuming little lives when the focus is off of them.

I guess it just bothers me that I see people who are supposed to be religious (in this case, my extended family) who put on a show for the Lord. I do not see things like humility in them. I don't really see a combination of fear and adoration for God. What I see is people living for themselves, and doing things for themselves. My impressions might be wrong, but as a former Catholic looking in, I don't see a lot of people living for the glory of God, with "good Catholics" being the least of them.

The annual report of charitable nations shows the USA once again at the top of the pile. This is good, but if Catholics claim to be the superior religion, they need to step up to the plate. A good start would be to quit asserting themselves into politics (immigration issues, abortion, death penalty), clean their own house (turn over child molesting priests), and work for the glory of our Lord, not for the Vatican.

I’m not saying I’m perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but people who live in glass "houses of the Lord" should not cast stones.

Angling the Deflector Shield

I'm confused.

Can anyone tell me when Dick Lugar became a key GOP leader? When was the last peep you heard from him? I can't remember either, but since he crapped on the troops last night, the media is going all McCain-iac on him. "See, see???? I told you there was a GOP guy against the war!!!" has been the story of the media today. Who is this idiot anyway? Sen (R) from Indiana. Does anyone else find it odd that these senators maintain a website of all the "great things" they are doing, except that they all lack a button to track their voting record? Isn't senate voting pretty much the most important thing a senator can do? Why not have a link to show that? I guess that would be too easy, and they don't want that to be the case.

Even the senate.gov page requires a bit of examination to find the "Vote" link. Is it at the top index? Nope, that is reserved for important things like "Visitors" or "Art & History", because when I think of the senate, I think of art and history. The VOTE link is off to the side with other links like the schedule. It is under the "Legislation & Records" index at the top (after a few clicks), but how many citizens go to the website for legislation or records? They go to see VOTES.

Oh, and in case you wanted to see if your senator voted the way you wanted him/her to vote on the Amnesty bill cloture, here is the link:

VOTES

Did they listen to the people? Click the link, and see if they listened to YOU. The whole media circus around Dick Lugar's comments on the war in Iraq is merely a means to distract from the vote that passed today. For a bill that was going to be forced down the throats of the American workers in a rapid, overnight vote, this thing has managed to do nothing except waste the time of the American people. The Arrogant senators voted they way they wanted to anyway, regardless of how many calls they got from their constituents. I guarantee you the calls weren't coming from the illegals. I don't think the senate switchboard has a "press 2 for espanol" (yet).

Who do YOU think is under the pile?

Look in the mirror...

Monday Glimpses

Wow.

Al Gore is at it again. This time he is blaming scientist for failing to reach a consensus on global warming earlier than they have. I think he needs to step back and take a breath of the air around that which he is shoveling. First, there is never a consensus in science; there is only 1) theory, or 2) fact. Theory is a suggestion that has to be proven by fact. Man-made global warming is only a theory that has yet to be proven by fact. In fact, this theory has been losing steam recently, most notably with the scientist who first supported the theory. What Al Gore needs to realize is that scientists have to collect temperature samples from a long period of time to realize if a global warming can exist, and during the time of the collection, the same fringe that is now pushing global warming was push a global freezing agenda. Al Gore was also at one time vice president. He continually blasts the current administration for failing to participate in the Kyoto environmental treaty, which was first presented for ratification when he … um… was… uh… vice president.

Ted Kennedy did a serenade in Spanish this weekend for a Mexican radio station in Los Angeles, CA. A US Senator??? This is still America, isn’t it? Too bad the people of Massachusetts are content to be marginalized by this drunken fool.

Diane Feinstein (D-CA) is all for the fairness doctrine. She is upset that talk-radio is dominated by conservatives, that the other side is not being fairly represented. She is quiet mistaken. I’m sure the other side is being fairly represented … in bankruptcy court. What these bitchy liberals need to realize is that since the inception of radio, and the concept of broadcasting, the airwaves have been dominated by market forces, an idea lost on blind socialists. Broadcasting has never been driven by programming. It has been driven by corporate advertising. The radio stations have to sell spots to companies. They have to convince these companies that it is in their best interest to reach the radio audience. It is not that radio is dominated by conservative talk; it is that the listenership DEMANDS conservative talk. Note that while conservative radio thrives, liberal counterpoint radio, most notably Air America, fails. Why do they fail? Radio is a business, and program directors have a responsibility to run programs which generate the highest amount of revenue per advertising spot. Revenue is figured on a per listener basis, the more listeners to a program, the more the radio station can charge advertisers. Radio is a fascinating model when it comes to politics. It demonstrates that unbridled liberalism repels people, while unbridled conservatism attracts people. It’s not that liberalism is denied its voice through radio. The people heard and categorically rejected that voice. This is illustrative to liberalism in general. Any liberal policy brought to a vote before the people will be treated with the same snarl of rejection as liberal radio. And THAT is why liberalism must be legislated through the courts, rather than through the voting box.

Filibuster, Schmilibuster

Or War, Snore

What do a senate filibuster and our current war in Iraq have in common? A lot more than one might think. First, let’s look at the two.

A senate filibuster is when some one stands on the floor to deliver continuous speeches in order to obstruct the legislative process. The filibuster can only be broken by a 3/5 vote for cloture (60 votes). These days, there is senate rule 22, which allows for a ‘procedural filibuster.’ This is a virtual filibuster, where the opposition merely threatens to filibuster the legislation, without actually having to sit there and make the extended speeches.

War. We all know what this is. It is bad, it is horrible, it is destructive, a means to bring your enemy to his knees in surrender. Right?

Here is where the similarity comes in. Our war in Iraq has a kind of “Rule 22”, which is crippling our military and has turned the Americans against the War on Terror. The policy of this administration has been a pulled-punches war. Iraq has been managed in such a way to minimize structural and collateral damage. This was a pretty decent idea when the war started in 2003. We had little to no problem with the citizens of Iraq when this started, so precision strikes and surgical attacks were a good idea. The problem is this war has not evolved into what it needs to be: nasty, brutal, swift, and severe. And this is NOT the fault of any one in uniform, but the fault of the politicians on these shores. This war has, in fact, turned into Rule 22. Our politicians are threatening to do something, while doing nothing. This war is the exact opposite of what a war needs to be. With insurgents hiding wherever they please in Iraq, the time has come to broaden the war. I don’t mean more soldiers in the streets, or more marines checking house to house for bad guys. I mean, pull those forces back, and start pounding the areas. HARD. Will there be civilian casualties? Yes. Will the infrastructure be destroyed? Probably.

War is meant to be so terrible that we don’t want to do it regularly. The problem is these terrorists have dragged us into their style of war, face to face, rather than the style of war that we have developed. Our technology is being used to a limited extent. What is killing our troops, a technologically advanced enemy? Hell no. It is a ragtag enemy who puts improvised bombs under a pile of garbage on the side of the road.

If rule 22 was revoked, and senators were REQUIRED to actually filibuster, not merely threaten, I think we would see a more functional senate. The same goes for the war. If the war would turn brutal and terrible, we would see a faster end to it. War and the senate are both a battle of wills; whoever has the strongest will at the end of the day will be victorious. Where is the will to truly go to war?

The Hungarians “tell Soze they want his territory- all his business. Soze looks over the face of his family. They he showed these men of will what will really was.” (Shoots 2 of the 3 gangsters, and then shoots his own wife and three children). Letting the last Hungarian go, “He waits until his wife and kids are in the ground and he goes after the rest of the mob. He kills their kids, he kills their wives, he kills their parents and their parents’ friends. He burns down the houses they live and the stores they work in, he kills people who owe them money.” – Verbal Kint, from “The Usual Suspects”

Is this the brutality needed? Who knows, but something else needs to be tried.

Political Landmines

Why Democrats Have the Upper Hand

It seems that democrats are idiot-savants when it comes to political landmines. In the years that they were out of power, they charged in on issues, headstrong in the wrong direction, and it always blew up in their face (idiot). The lesson the republicans should take is not to do that same raging rush. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

The senate immigration bill that is amnesty that they say is not amnesty is a political landmine for the republicans. This issue has been maneuvered to benefit democrats, albeit to a limited extent. First, the bill was dying, due to an uprising of conservatives across America calling and warning their senators not to vote for this bill. The democrats have the seats to force this bill through, but they do not have the vote. For whatever reason, the senate, against the will of the American people, is trying to resurrect this pile of a bill.

Where this turns into a landmine is that the republicans, having put down the bill once, are allowing it to come up again. They are not fighting it. The problem is the heart of the people has not changed in the past 2-3 weeks. It has not changed in the past 20 years, since the last amnesty bill. The American people are for LEGAL immigration, something that has fallen on deaf ears in the senate. Republicans are in a strange place right now, for if they agree to the amnesty bill, they will essentially lose the conservative base that they must serve. If they do not aid the passage of the bill, then democrats can beat them over the head with it in 2008, saying that republicans blocked border enforcement (savant). How did republicans get in this position in the first place? I think it was six years of house, senate, and White House control, yet republicans managed to do NOTHING to enforce the border. Why should the lack of republican support of border enforcement this year be any different than the attitude that lost them control of Washington in the first place? And who are both parties kowtowing to? A large group of people who aren’t even legal to vote. Everyone needs to talk to Bob ‘B-1’ Dornan about the impact of illegal immigrants who vote in American elections.

June 14 is Flag Day

The Red, White, and Blue

Today is Flag Day, when our nation celebrates, what else but the American Flag. This symbol of our country has inspired the National Anthem, along with countless other marches and songs. It is the representation of freedom and liberty, and invokes pride in all true Americans.

The links below provides a history of the American flag, as well as the rules of use, presentation, honor, and disposal of the flag.

http://www.usa-flag-site.org/history.shtml
http://www.usflag.org/history/flagday.html

Very interesting, at least to me. I used to get upset at people who burned the flag, like foreigners, or domestic individuals who want to burn it in America. I don’t get upset anymore. Those foreigners who want to burn the flag can do so. It just reminds me that they have a tougher life wherever they live and cannot appreciate such things that America represents. And this is not limited to ideological things, but material things as well, like showers, toilets, and automobiles manufactured after 1984.

I think Wang Chi said it best:

Wang: "Here's to the Army and Navy and the battles they have won; here's to America's colors, the colors that never run."

Jack Burton: "May the wings of liberty never lose a feather."