First Big Match, coming up!

The stages from the first big match of the year have now been posted, and as usual, looks like a lot of fun!

Lots of high round count stages with lots of movement required. A few gimmicky stages that look to be entertaining, but at least nothing like last year's Hellaports which I absolutely hated!

I've got 2 months to get my ass in shape and start hitting the range for some serious practice - hopefully the stinkin' weather will co-operate!

Cookie Monster Searches Deep Within Himself and Asks: Is Me Really Monster?

They don't call the vampire with math fetish monster, and me pretty sure he undead and drinks blood. No one calls Grover monster, despite frequent delusional episodes and obsessive-compulsive tendencies. And the obnoxious red Grover—oh, what his name?—Elmo! Yes, Elmo live all day in imaginary world and no one call him monster. No, they think he cute. And Big Bird! Don't get me started on Big Bird! He unnaturally gigantic talking canary! How is that not monster? Snuffleupagus not supposed to exist—woolly mammoths extinct. His very existence monstrous. Me least like monster. Me maybe have unhealthy obsession, but me no monster.

We're on a Sesame Street roll here...

Thanks again to JR.

photo of the day: Austin shuts downtown after dead birds discovered

More on those bird deaths in Austin. HI-larious.

Hat tip to JR.

More signs of dhimmitude

From Jihad Watch/Dhimmi Watch:

Dhimmitude is the status that Islamic law, the Sharia, mandates for non-Muslims, primarily Jews and Christians. Dhimmis, "protected people," are free to practice their religion in a Sharia regime, but are made subject to a number of humiliating regulations designed to enforce the Qur'an's command that they "feel themselves subdued" (Sura 9:29). This denial of equality of rights and dignity remains part of the Sharia, and, as such, is part of the law that global jihadists are laboring to impose everywhere, ultimately on the entire human race.

It would appear that a group of muslims arrived late to their assigned check in time.

Northwest said the pilgrims failed to check in one hour before their transatlantic flight from Frankfurt, Germany, to Detroit was scheduled to depart, as is required. The passengers arrived in Frankfurt via a charter flight from Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and mistakenly believed they were cleared to board the Northwest flight, but were not.

However, once the confusion was rectified, the group was placed on the soonest available flight and apologized for the delay. Story over, right?

Wrong.

The January 7 incident was taken up by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which welcomed the airline's apology, but said the group wanted clarification and compensation.

So, what we have here, are a group of muslims. They showed up late to check in. As a result, they were denied entry to the aircraft and placed instead on the next available aircraft. And now NW airlines is going to have to PAY them becuase the group was late? What's next?? All muslims fly for free? All muslims get to fly first class only? All muslims to the front of the line? Heaven forbid a muslim have to wait in line with the rest of us infidels.

I hope NW sticks to its guns and doesn't give in to the political pressure put on it by the asshats at CAIR. I'm not counting on it, but it would be nice.

Inflation has best showing in 3 years

It's Bush's fault!

The slowdown in inflation translated into more spending power for Americans. The government said average weekly earnings for non-supervisory workers rose by 2.1 percent last year, after adjusting for inflation. That was the biggest gain in nine years.

Wait - that's good, right?

Inflation-adjusted weekly earnings had fallen for three straight years, a development that Democrats argued in last fall's election campaigns showed that President Bush's economic policies were not working for the middle class.

Oh, guess not.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department reported that construction of new homes rose by 4.5 percent in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.642 million units, raising hopes that the worst of the housing slowdown may be coming to an end.

Wait, that's good too, right?

The report on the Consumer Price Index offered good news on that front, showing that core inflation was rising at an annual rate of 1.4 percent in the final three months of the year, just half of the 2.8 percent rate of increase turned in during the July-September quarter. It was the best showing of the year.

And that's good too, right? Well, what about fuel cost?

For all of 2006, energy costs rose 2.9 percent, a significant slowdown after an increase of 17.1 percent in 2005 and 16.6 percent in 2004. That price moderation occurred in recent months. After advancing at a 22.8 percent annual rate in the first six months of 2006, energy costs fell at a 13.4 percent rate in the final half of the year.

Hmmm...

Repeat after me: "GLOBAL WARMING! IRAQ!" It seems to be all that's left for the Democraps to complain about. Be prepared to hear it a lot.

Now THAT's LOW!

Was surfing around the Military.com website, which is a pretty outstanding resource of military videos and found this gem.

All I can say is that is freaking low.

If you're at work, turn the sound down as there is some, shall we say, adult language. ;)

Reminder

Even if you don't have muffs, you can usually find something at the range to use as hearing protection, like this guy did.

Global Warming - Texas Chilling

What's wrong with this picture?

That's right - it's my car here in Texas, with snow, sleet and ice on it.

This was my drive to work today:

And do you think the weatherman knew this was going to happen? Of course not - this sort of stuff was going to be waaay SOUTH of us. I'd love to have a job where I can be wrong all the time, and still make tons of money.

Of course, the schools are closed, mass panic has ensued, and wrecks are everywhere. Big fun down here in Texas!

Shocked I am!

Really. I'm shocked. To think that the people in the Middle East were fighting one another some 5500 years ago just shocks me to no end. Really, it does. I mean, there was no George Bush, no Zionist state, no foreigners messing around in their business. Yet somehow one group of people managed to completely wipe out an entire city-state.

I'm waiting for someone to explain this to me because I really thought that the only reason there has been a state of war in the Middle East has been Western meddling, the founding of Israel and our own lust for oil....

Annoying ads can be effective

I was on Yahoo Groups earlier, and was once again assaulted by one of those dancing silhouette ads. Yeah, you know exactly what I'm talking about - either some goof in a suit shaking his ass, the 2 cowboys performing some sort of brokeback line dance, or the morons dancing on the rooftops. After seeing too many of these things, I decided to consult the Internets to see if I was just being a crabby old man, or if others were as sick of these things as I am.

On a blog called MyOpenWallet, visitor "J.D." added his comments to a post about the ads: "I hate these ads. I intentionally avert my eyes so that I do not know who runs them."

That's funny, because that's what I do, too. I wouldn NEVER buy anything these ads are selling. Just like I won't buy anything from Southwest Kia or Southwest Hyundai ("we wanna see ya in a Southwest Kia!"). Yeah - local TV ad featuring Bill Dickason (great name for a car salesman), where they promise "if you can find a better deal in Texas, I'll just give it to ya!" WTF does THAT mean?

But I digress. Back to hating these silhouette ads. Another quote:

The lowermybills dancing ads are the most ANNOYING ads ever made. Yes, I now know the company but I HATE them -- would never, EVER think of using them.

Note the quote. Yes, we know the companies now (because they're SO damned aggravating), but we would never think of buying from them. So what's the purpose of effective advertising? I'd say it's getting people to buy your product. Want some insight to the geniuses that devised these things?

Coffin said the ads were done in-house, not by an ad firm. As for the many blog-posters that don't see a connection between boot-scooting cowboys and mortgage quotes, "All the dancing you see is really a celebration of saving money," Coffin said. "At least that's how we see it."

Right.